National Cancer Institute Awards Gliknik Up to $1.5 Million in SBIR Funding

BALTIMORE, Oct. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Gliknik Inc., a biopharmaceuticals company creating new therapies for cancer and immune/inflammatory disorders, today announced that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded the company a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract for up to $1.5 million. With the funding, Gliknik will further advance its lead compounds from its first-in-class stradobody™ platform towards the clinic. 

"The NCI SBIR contract demonstrates a strong commitment to our stradobody™ platform," stated Gliknik CEO David S. Block. "We are grateful to the NCI contract proposal review team for recognizing Gliknik's progress in the highly competitive cancer research arena."

"We are hopeful that drug candidates from the stradobody™ platform can bring real value to patients," added Henrik S. Olsen, Ph.D., Director of Drug Discovery at Gliknik.  "By binding multiple receptors instead of just improving binding to one receptor, stradobodies™ demonstrate a significant increase in therapy potency over other monoclonal antibodies targeting the same tumor antigen." 

In August, Gliknik investors, many of whom participated in the Maryland biotechnology tax credit program, invested more than $2 million in the company.  Gliknik has now raised a total of more than $10 million in equity. This SBIR Phase II contract brings the amount that Gliknik has been awarded in competitive, non-dilutive grants and contracts to more than $2.5 million from Maryland and federal sources since its founding in 2007.  

"With a first-rate management team and a diverse immunology portfolio, we continue to see Gliknik as a solid investment," said Joel B. Braunstein, M.D., M.B.A., Co-Founder, Managing Partner, LifeTech Development Funds, a Gliknik investor.  "The NCI SBIR Phase II contract award further endorses the potential of the company's pipeline."

About the NCI SBIR Program

NCI SBIR program is funded through federal agencies with extramural research and development budgets over $100 million.  These agencies are required to set aside 2.5 percent for small companies to conduct innovative research or research and development that have potential for commercialization and public benefit. The NCI SBIR Office invited Gliknik to propose a Phase II SBIR contract earlier this year based on Phase I study results completed last spring, which was funded in part via an NCI SBIR Phase I contract award.  Of note, in recent years, only about one third of National Institutes of Health (NIH) Phase I SBIR recipients have gone on to receive Phase II funding, according to data obtained from the NIH.

About the Stradobody™ Platform

Gliknik's stradobody™ platform represents a novel way to make antibody-mimetics, generating monoclonal antibody-like compounds that are more effective than monoclonal antibodies when directed against cancer and inflammatory disease targets. Gliknik has made a series of stradobodies with 100-fold greater potency compared to the corresponding monoclonal antibody. Gliknik expects the stradobody™ platform to be applicable to enhancing any normal cancer monoclonal antibody that induces an immune response called Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, or ADCC.

About Gliknik Inc.

Founded in 2007, Gliknik is a biopharmaceuticals company creating new therapies for patients with cancer and immune disorders. Gliknik expertise is in modulation of the immune system to fight disease. The Gliknik stradomer™ program in autoimmune diseases has led to GL-2045 which is advancing towards clinical trials.  Gliknik has also in-licensed two cancer immunomodulator drugs that are in clinical trials in patients with advanced head and neck cancer and with advanced multiple myeloma. Learn more at www.gliknik.com.

SOURCE Gliknik Inc.