Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Oricula Therapeutics Gets $2M NIH Grant For Hearing Drug

Seattle-based Oricula Therapeutics, which is developing biopharmaceuticals meant to protect from hearing loss caused by exposure to certain antibiotics, has raised $2.06M via a Phase 2, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program grant. According to the company, the fundin goes to support preclinical workup of the company's lead compound and FDA Investigational New Drug (IND) application. Oricula Therapeutics is developing a medication to stem the loss of hearing that sometimes occurs when patients are treated with aminoglycoside antiobiotics, which are very effective at treating bacterial infections, such as endocarditis, neonatal septicemia and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. Those antibiotics--although they save lives--have serious hearing loss as a potential side effect. Oricula is led by Malcolm Gleser, MD, PhD.