Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Wins $500,000 NIMH SBIR Grant to Develop New Drugs for Anxiety.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an ion channel drug discovery company, announced today that it has been awarded a $500,000 Phase I SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant, administered by the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health). Neurion is using the grant to support its ongoing development of safer and more effective drugs to treat anxiety.

Paul B. Bennett, Ph.D., Neurion's Vice President of Discovery, said, "The NIMH has recognized the value of our technology as a potential breakthrough in neuropharmacology. Strategically, this grant puts Neurion in a very strong position to advance our goals of developing non-sedating anti-anxiety drugs, as well as novel ion channel drugs for other diseases and disorders of the CNS (central nervous system). We are excited about this recognition from the NIMH, and this opportunity to advance neuro-psychiatric medicine as well."

Successful treatment of generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) is a major unmet medical need. According to the NIMH, four million adult Americans (ages 18-54) suffer from GAD. About twice as many women as men are affected.

It is remarkable that there have been no major breakthroughs in drug treatments for anxiety in the approximately 50 years since the benzodiazepines (such as the well-known drug Valium(R)(1)) were first introduced. Benzodiazepines are an important drug class with both desirable and undesirable actions, mediated through GABA(A) receptors in the brain. GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid) is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in human CNS.

The recent progress in molecular neuro-genetics has revealed the existence of multiple GABA receptor sub-types and their involvement in sleep, mood and anxiety. These discoveries open the door for new drugs targeted to specific GABA(A) receptor subtypes to be developed.

Neurion's GABA(A) research program is specifically focused on the GABA(A)-alpha2 receptor subtype, which, evidence indicates, is associated with anxiety, but not with the sedation or memory effects. Neurion's goal is to produce a novel anti-anxiety drug that would avoid the sleepiness and memory impairment that anxiety sufferers may encounter when taking existing anti-anxiety medications, such as benzodiazepines.

This SBIR award will help fund commercialization of Neurion's unique technology that enables the precise understanding of the molecular interactions that define drug selectivity. Drugs that are more selective and site-specific in their action are expected to lack the sedative, memory impairing and hypnotic side effects of the benzodiazepines and other more recently introduced anti-anxiety medications.

Mark W. Nowak, Ph.D., Neurion's Associate Director, Molecular Neurosciences, said, "The difficulty in designing GABA(A)-alpha2 receptor-selective drugs is the lack of understanding of what defines selective drug binding and efficacy with GABA(A) receptor subtypes. Neurion is now in a position to make advances in this area through the use of Neurion's NP2 (Neurion Precision Neurochemistry Platform) technology."

About Neurion

Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.neurionpharma.com) is a privately held, early-stage pharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover and develop safer and more effective pharmaceuticals that target ion channels and other membrane proteins. The Company uses its proprietary drug discovery and lead optimization platforms, NP2 and hERG MAP(TM), to understand the structural basis of drug-ion channel interactions, and to design better drugs by exploiting this knowledge.

(1)Valium(R) is a registered trademark of Hoffman La-Roche