Encore Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (EncorePharma) announced today that it has received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Institutes of Health. The $100,000 grant will further the collaborative research and development efforts between EncorePharma researchers and Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientists Robert Floyd, Ph.D., and Kenneth Hensley, Ph.D.
The grant will help the scientists in their continuing attempts to identify natural products and natural-product-derived small molecules for use in inflammatory and degenerative neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.
“This award validates the supporting collaborative work conducted over this last year and encourages us to move quickly into lead-finding and development efforts based on our exciting early discovery research”, stated William Wechter, Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of EncorePharma.
“The targeted, high-quality biochemical approach is the centerpiece of our early research collaboration with EncorePharma,” said Floyd, who heads OMRF’s Free Radical Biology and Aging Research Program. “It has the potential for leading to new therapies for age-associated decline in neurologic function.”
The Small Business Innovation Research program supports innovative research performed in the small business setting. EncorePharma’s award consists of a grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging, which leads a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life.
About EncorePharma:
A privately-owned biopharmaceutical research and development company in Riverside, California, EncorePharma (www.encorepharma.com) is focused on the discovery and development of proprietary technology in both the pharmaceutical and nutritional areas. Lead products are in development for treatment and prevention of the major disorders of cancer, neurodegenerative disease and cardiovascular disease.
About OMRF:
OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understand and curing human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research areas as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease. OMRF is home to Oklahoma’s only Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and only member of the National Academy of Sciences in the area of biomedical research.
