Tuesday 16 July 2013

Soligenix profiled in BioTuesdays.com article as it readies for two key drug trials

Soligenix (OTCBB:SNGX), a company that is developing several promising drug candidates, was featured Tuesday in an article on BioTuesdays.com, which profiled the drug developer that is preparing to begin phase 2 clinical testing of its two lead products later this year. 
After closing a $7.1 million financing last month, the company is planning to start phase 2 clinical trials for SGX942, which is designed to treat oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients, and which recently received investigational new drug clearance from the U.S. FDA.
It second lead candidate, SGX203, is being developed as a potential treatment for pediatric Crohn's disease.
But these two candidates are just one part of the company's potential, with a huge pipeline that in biotherapeutics and vaccines for biodefense that BioTuesdays writer Leonard Zehr highlights are targeting indications that each has a market potential of at least $200 million plus. 
The company earlier this month teamed up with SciClone Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SCLN) and gained access to SciClone’s oral mucositis clinical and regulatory data library in exchange for commercialization rights for SGX942 in China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
It also as recently as May signed a collaboration deal with Intrexon, which is controlled by billionaire biotech entreprenuer Randal (RJ) Kirk, to develop and commericalize human monoclonal antibody therapies for new biodefense and infectious disease applications for melioidosis, a deadly disease for which there is no prevantative vaccine or immunotherapy. 
The article cited Dr. Christopher Schaber as saying that the deal is unique "because the goal is to develop a therapy that will treat both a deadly disease currently affecting millions of people as well as fight a potential biological weapon". Melioidosis is listed as a top five high-priority threat in the HHS2012 public health emergency medical countermeasures enterprise strategic plan. 
Aside from its biotherapeutics business, the company is also focused on biodefense countermeasures, with the product generating the most buzz being RiVax, a vaccine to protect against ricin poisoning, expected to begin phase 2 trials in 2014. RiVax has received U.S. federal funding and, if approved, would likely be purchased under government contract. Soligenix’s biodefense program also includes OrbeShield for GI acute radiation syndrome (ARS), involving its two-tablet immediate- and delayed-released formulation of oral BDP (beclomethasone 17, 21-dipropionate), which is "awaiting a decision on a contract proposal which was made to BARDA last February", wrote Zehr.
The company's stock has so far risen 85 per cent this year, and is currently sitting at around $1.11. 

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