Parion Sciences Receives NIH Biodefense Grant to Study Methods for Mitigating Radiation-Induced Lung Injury

Parion Sciences, Inc., a privately-held, development-stage pharmaceutical company has announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have awarded the company a biodefense grant in excess of $850,000.

The purpose of the grant is to advance the development of safe and effective medical treatments that mitigate pulmonary injury arising from inhalation of radioactive particles using Parion's Radiation and Bioterrorism Countermeasures Platform.

Parion will utilize the funding in a series of studies to evaluate the benefits of their lead compound, CF-552, combined with hypertonic saline, to increase removal of inhaled radioactive particles from the lungs.

In previous clinical studies, treatment with CF-552 increased clearance of non-hazardous, radio-labeled particles from the lungs of healthy volunteers, as compared to vehicle alone. A portion of the research will be conducted by the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI), a not-for-profit research institute located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

"This award represents an important step to help us demonstrate the capacity of our novel ENaC inhibitor technology to treat radiation and bio-terror threats," said Paul Boucher, Senior Director, Finance and Business at Parion. "We look forward to demonstrating the utility of our compound to provide a novel medical countermeasure for the prevention of radiation-induced lung injury following a nuclear incident."