Purdue Startup Awarded $2M for Blood Cancer Research
A Purdue University-affiliated startup has been awarded a $2 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Cancer Institute to conduct trials on a treatment for an especially aggressive form of blood cancer.
West Lafayette-based biotech firm KinaRx LLC focuses on the development of novel kinase inhibitors for the treatment of Acute myeloid leukemia, with an emphasis on the treatment of drug resistant tumors.
The American Cancer Society says AML is an aggressive blood cancer. More than 19,000 new cases are diagnosed a year, and more than 11,000 people a year die from it.
“We are ready to take our technology to the next level and potentially help people who are dealing with aggressive and deadly diseases that offer few treatment options, particularly for relapse patients,” said Herman Sintim, a professor of chemistry in Purdue’s Department of Chemistry.
The SBIR Phase I/II grant will help KinaRX to fast-track its platform to human trials.