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Noveome Biotherapeutics Receives $4 Million Grant From Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

May 7, 2020 Off By BusinessWire

Funding Enables Existing Clinical Trials to Proceed as Company Joins Global Response with COVID-19 Program

PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Noveome Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation biologics for the promotion and restoration of cellular integrity of inflamed or damaged tissues, has received a $4 Million grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to continue clinical trials of its lead product candidate, ST266, in a wide range of diseases, including multiple ophthalmic indications. The funding will enable Noveome to shift its existing resources to support the company’s recently launched COVID-19 program evaluating ST266 as a treatment for the “cytokine storm”—the severe inflammatory response often observed in COVID-19 infections.

“While researchers around the world race to deliver a vaccine that will address this COVID-19 pandemic head on, we need a range of new therapeutics and diagnostics to stem the tide. This very timely funding will enable us to advance our ongoing programs while concurrently accelerating our evaluation of ST266 against COVID-19 in clinical trials,” said William Golden, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Noveome. “We’re incredibly grateful to the leaders and people of Pennsylvania who have provided tremendous support throughout our company’s journey—particularly Representative Frank Dermody and Senator Jay Costa, who both helped us to secure this timely grant.”

“It remains our top priority to do everything that we can to protect the public health of Pennsylvanians,” said Senator Costa. “Part of our strategy is to support innovative companies in the Commonwealth like Noveome that are working to find solutions in this unprecedented health crisis.”

“We are proud to support Pittsburgh-based Noveome as they pursue new potential treatments for a range of challenging conditions, including COVID-19,” added Representative Dermody. “Now, more than ever, all of us in state government must do our part to enable science to bring new treatments into the fight against this virus.”

ST266 is a cell-free biologic made by culturing a novel population of cells derived from full term placentas donated after a birth. When cultured in a bioreactor, these cells produce an array of bioactive molecules, known as a secretome, which promote cellular survival and resuscitate damaged cells. The ST266 secretome contains a vast array of active biomolecules in very minute and safe physiologic concentrations that are anti-inflammatory, preserve cellular survival and resuscitate damaged cells. Given these observed characteristics, ST266 has the ability to potentially prevent the cytokine storm associated with COVID-19 as well as promote lung healing and prevent multiple organ injuries.

“Recent internal models in an acute systemic inflammation model demonstrated that ST266 was able to significantly reduce multiple inflammatory cytokines,” said Noveome Chief Science Officer Larry Brown, Sc.D. “ST266 has also been shown to have significant anti-inflammatory activity in both preclinical and clinical studies in other indications. Relevant preclinical studies showed that systemic administration of ST266 protected lung against elastase-induced lung injury, ischemia-induced lung injury and cytokine-related pulmonary inflammation. Based on these data, we believe ST266 has the capacity to potentially address multiple treatment requirements of COVID-19 infection.”

About Noveome Biotherapeutics, Inc.

Based in Pittsburgh, Noveome Biotherapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing next-generation biologics for the promotion and restoration of cellular integrity of inflamed or damaged tissues. Noveome has launched a program to test its novel platform biologic, ST266, as a treatment for the severe inflammatory response seen in COVID-19 infection. ST266 is currently being evaluated in multiple indications including a Phase 1 open label clinical trial to establish the safety of ST266 in intranasal transcribriform delivery from nose to brain and eye and a Phase 2 open-label clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of ST266 in healing persistent corneal epithelial defects (PEDs). For more information, visit www.noveome.com.