Halozyme Therapeutics Awarded Four Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Grants

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Nov 04, 2010, 07:30 ET

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: HALO), a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing products targeting the extracellular matrix, today announced the award of four grants totaling $977,917 under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project program. The grant funding will support Halozyme's ongoing Ultrafast Insulin, PEGPH20, HTI-501, and drug delivery development programs that are directed at addressing unmet medical needs across a broad range of therapeutic areas such as diabetes, cancer and immunology.

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"Halozyme is pleased to have received favorable reviews that recognize the merit of each of the four applications that we submitted to this program," stated Jonathan Lim, M.D., president and CEO. "This cash award will be utilized to help further advance our product development projects that have the potential to deliver breakthrough medical discoveries for patients with debilitating medical conditions and diseases."

About the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project tax credit

The Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project tax credit was enacted as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The credit is a tax benefit targeted to therapeutic discovery projects that show a reasonable potential to:

Result in new therapies to treat areas of unmet medical need or prevent, detect or treat chronic or acute diseases and conditions,
Reduce the long-term growth of health care costs in the United States, or
Significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within 30 years.

Allocation of the credit took into consideration which projects showed the greatest potential to create and sustain high-quality, high-paying U.S. jobs and to advance U.S. competitiveness in life, biological and medical sciences.

About Halozyme

Halozyme Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing products targeting the extracellular matrix for the endocrinology, oncology, dermatology and drug delivery markets. The company's product portfolio is based primarily on intellectual property covering the family of human enzymes known as hyaluronidases and additional enzymes that affect the extracellular matrix. Halozyme's Enhanze™ technology is a novel drug delivery platform designed to increase the absorption and dispersion of biologics. The company has key partnerships with Roche to apply Enhanze technology to Roche's biological therapeutics, including Herceptin® and MabThera®, for up to 13 targets, and with Baxter BioScience to apply Enhanze technology to immunoglobulin. Halozyme's Ultrafast Insulin program combines its rHuPH20 enzyme with mealtime insulins, which may produce more rapid absorption, faster action, and improved glycemic control. The product candidates in Halozyme's pipeline target multiple areas of significant unmet medical need. For more information visit www.halozyme.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

In addition to historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements (including, without limitation, statements concerning the application of grant funding) that involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are also identified through use of the words "believe," "enable," "may," "will," "could," "intends," "estimate," "anticipate," "plan," "predict," "probable," "potential," "possible," "should," "continue," and other words of similar meaning. Actual results could differ materially from the expectations contained in forward-looking statements as a result of several factors, including regulatory approval requirements and competitive conditions. These and other factors that may result in differences are discussed in greater detail in the company's reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.