Date: September 28, 2011
Company: Cellerant Therapeutics of San Carlos, Calif.
Contract amount: $16.7 million for second year of contract; HHS could extend for a third year if milestones continue to be met
About this contract: Cellerant will continue studies and manufacturing activities to further develop a new way to treat the illness known as neutropenia, an abnormally low number of white blood cells caused by exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation. Cellerant’s drug, called CLT-008, uses a kind of cells called myeloid progenitor cells, which can grow into any kind of blood cell the body needs.
CLT-008 is being developed to support and add to the patient’s own progenitor cells, providing protection for patients against life-threatening infections and hemorrhaging while their own bone marrow is recovering. CLT-008 could be used for other blood disorders and complications of cancer in which blood cells and platelets need to be replenished, so it also has promise as supportive therapy for patients receiving bone marrow or fetal cord blood transplants.
Additional information: BARDA is seeking additional proposals for products that potentially could treat or prevent illness and injury from acute radiation syndrome, as well as improved diagnostic tools to measure the radiation dose a person has absorbed after a nuclear denotation or radiation accident. Proposals are accepted through the Broad Agency Announcement BARDA-CBRN-BAA-11-100-SOL-00009 at www.fbo.gov.
Press Release: BARDA funds development of five drugs to protect against radiation
