RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Viamet Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that one of its novel antifungal compounds has been selected for inclusion in the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program. TRND is a government-funded program specifically designed to speed development of new therapies for rare and neglected diseases. Together, Viamet and NIH will pursue development of Viamet’s oral antifungal agent for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis, a life-threatening fungal infection which annually afflicts over 1 million people in the developing world, resulting in approximately 500,000 deaths.
“We are very pleased that the National Institutes of Health has selected one of our novel antifungal compounds for inclusion in the TRND program,” said Robert Schotzinger, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Viamet. “The TRND program scientific review process is very rigorous and competition for inclusion in the program is extremely high. To be one of only four projects selected for funding is a further validation of Viamet’s Metallophile® Technology.”
“The Viamet compound selected for inclusion in the TRND program has shown superior efficacy in advanced animal models of cryptococcal meningitis when compared to standard therapies,” noted Dr. Schotzinger. “Current therapies for cryptococcal meningitis are not optimal from an efficacy, safety or dosing perspective, however, Viamet’s novel compound has the potential to address each of these unmet needs. With the significant financial support of the TRND program, we will be able to rapidly move this promising therapy forward in development.”
About Viamet Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.viamet.com)
Viamet discovers and develops novel, best-in-class inhibitors of key metalloenzymes via an innovative and proprietary metal-binding approach, the Metallophile® Technology. Viamet’s disruptive Metallophile® Technology is based on our leading expertise in bioinorganic chemistry and metalloenzymes and allows Viamet to identify validated metalloenzyme targets with high therapeutic and commercial potential, leverage existing metalloenzyme inhibitors as the basis for our novel analogs, and rapidly generate superior compounds by optimizing the metal-binding component of existing inhibitors.
Utilizing our Metallophile® Technology, Viamet has been able to rapidly discover and develop safe and effective compounds that address key unmet medical needs in the areas of oncology and infectious disease. In 2011 Viamet will transition from a discovery-stage company to a development-stage company on initiation of human clinical trials with our novel compound for the treatment of castration-refractory prostate cancer as well as our novel compound for invasive candidiasis and/or onychomycosis.