NERx Biosciences, a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company, was awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute to further develop small molecule inhibitors that target the DNA damage response pathway for difficult-to-treat cancers, such as lung and ovarian cancer.
Cisplatin, the most prescribed cancer therapeutic, is known to cause DNA damage. Despite wide use, most cancer patients are not cured with Cisplatin alone, as the development of resistance is common. However, NERx Biosciences’ therapeutic utilizes first-in-class molecule inhibitors that target the replication protein A in the DNA damage response pathway, which enhances Cisplatin activity.
Ultimately, this therapeutic allows doctors to selectively kill cancer cells with the hope of improving a patient’s response to therapy. Furthermore, the therapeutic works in junction with both traditional therapies and novel targeted therapies to provide the patient with the best clinical outcome.
John Turchi, NERx Biosciences’ chief scientific officer, founded the company in 2009. Turchi is also the Tom and Julie Wood Family Foundation Professor of Lung Cancer Research at the IU School of Medicine and a researcher at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Targeting the DNA damage response pathway with NERx329, the novel RPA inhibitor is pushing the boundaries and holds the potential to dramatically impact how we treat cancer,” Turchi said. “To achieve dramatic advances in rates of response, durations of response and combating resistance requires constantly pushing the boundaries of therapeutic development. This includes developing drugs against targets that were once thought to be undruggable. The importance of bringing novel, first-in-class therapies to the market cannot be overstated.”
NERx has had a string of recent successes in furthering its research and reaching phase one clinical trials with its anticancer therapeutic. In 2018, NERx raised $1.3 million in seed funding with the help of IU Ventures.
“We are excited for NERx to receive this new NIH Phase II award, as it will allow them to continue their commercialization efforts of technologies developed at Indiana University,” said Jason Whitney, chief venture officer at IU Ventures. “It’s a true testament of their determination to bring to market therapies that help treat patients worldwide.
“NERx was one of the first companies born out of an Indiana University lab that the IU Philanthropic Ventures fund was able to partner with and help support financially but also provide extrinsic opportunities to support their growth toward commercialization. It’s exciting to see them granted this NIH Phase II, as these types of tools are important factors in the long process of getting companies like NERx through all the necessary regulatory hurdles of commercialization.”
In 2022, NERx raised another $250,000 with Elevate Ventures and multiple individual investors.
“We see the potential for the therapeutics being developed at NERx to be first and best-in-class treatments for patients with solid tumors,” said Kristin Eilenberg, vice president of life sciences and health care at Elevate Ventures. “With strong scientific foundations and a high-quality management team, NERx has the potential to significantly impact therapeutic options for oncology patients.”
In January, NERx was awarded the Inaugural Quantum Leap Award from Indiana Biosciences Research Institute and Roche Diagnostics that includes a year of free lab space and $50,000 to support their research.
“We are excited to be a supportive partner to NERx on their exciting work and congratulate them on the NCI grant,” said Alan Palkowitz, president and CEO at Indiana Biosciences Research Institute. “This further validates the strong innovation potential of companies like NERx that are part of the Indiana life sciences ecosystem.”
NERx licensed five of Turchi’s technologies with the help of the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office.
“We’ve had a close relationship with John’s lab for over a decade now, and we all share the same goal of developing the next generation of anticancer therapeutics,” Pawelczak said. “With this grant, we hope to come one step closer to getting this drug to market.”
