Kancera is awarded € 950,000 for the development of drugs to treat severe parasitic diseases
2013-08-22
Kancera together with international research groups in the project A-PARADDISE has been awarded a grant from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme to develop drugs to combat severe parasitic diseases including malaria, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. The total three-year project budget is 6 M € where the Kancera part of about € 950,000 is the largest.
Earlier this year Kancera successfully completed the EU SEtTReND project in which compounds were developed that kill the Schistosoma parasite. These substances will be further developed in the new A-PARADDISE project towards a new and much needed drug for the treatment of one or several major parasitic diseases that cause significant global morbidity and mortality. WHO estimates that 480 million people suffer from the four parasitic diseases that the project focuses on and that they cause about 900,000 deaths per year.
The substances developed to date are highly potent inhibitors of two epigenetic target proteins in the parasite Schistosoma. The project will develop inhibitors against further epigenetic target proteins in these parasites. Kancera is the only pharmaceutical development company in the A-PARADDISE consortium and is well positioned to commercialize the drug candidates that the company develops and owns together with its partners.
Inhibitors against the corresponding epigenetic human target proteins constitute possible therapies for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases..
About A-PARADDISE
A-PARADDISE (Anti-Parasitic Drug Discovery in Epigenetics) is an EU-funded project (contract n ° 602080), which aims to identify new drug targets for anti-parasitic drug discovery as well as to develop already available lead compounds to candidate drugs against schistosomiasis. The project will also develop lead compounds and possibly drug candidates against targets in the following parasites (diseases): Leishmania (Leishmaniasis), Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease) and Plasmodium falciparum (malaria). The A-PARADDISE project builds on the recently completed and highly successful SEtTReND project which was focused against schistosomiasis.
About Kancera AB (publ)
Kancera develops the basis for new therapeutics, starting with new treatment concepts and ending with the sale of a drug candidate to international pharmaceutical companies. Kancera is currently developing drugs for the treatment of leukemia and solid tumors, based partly on blocking survival signals in the cancer cell and partly on metabolic strangulation. Kancera’s operations are based in the Karolinska Institutet Science Park in Stockholm and the company employs around 7 people. Kancera shares are traded on NASDAQ OMX First North and are held by around 1700 shareholders. Remium Nordic AB is Kancera’s Certified Adviser.
For additional information, please contact:
Thomas Olin, CEO: Tel +46 735 20 40 01
Address:
Kancera AB
Karolinska Institutet Science Park
Banvaktsvägen 22,
SE 171 48 Solna,
Sweden
Please visit the company’s web www.kancera.com
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