NIH rare disease program selects projects

NIH selected four preclinical projects for development under its Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases program. TRND will use its $24 million annual budget to provide the projects with R&D staff and laboratory resources, including funding.

The projects are: a compound from ReveraGen Biopharma Inc. (Rockville, Md.) for Duchenne muscular dystrophy; a disease-modifying treatment for fragile X syndrome from Afraxis Inc. (La Jolla, Calif.); an antifungal product from Viamet Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Morrisville, N.C.) to treat cryptococcal meningitis in HIV-infected patients in sub-Saharan Africa; and a compound from the National Human Genome Research Institute for the targeted treatment of core binding factor leukemia. ...