SFA Therapeutics Receives Grant For Drug for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome In COVID-19

PHILADELPHIA - June 24, 2020 - PRLog -- SFA Therapeutics, Inc. is pleased to announce receipt of a "Save Our Start-ups" (SOS) grant to study SFA005 in the treatment of cytokine storm linked to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), which has been experienced by patients infected with COVID-19. This grant was issued by Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In this important effort to counter the effects of COVID-19 virus, we are partnering with Melior Discovery of Exton, PA to test SFA005 as both a preventative and a treatment in a validated liposaccharide challenge (LPS) animal model of ARDS.  Success in this study would be an important precursor to human testing.

Dr. Ira Spector, CEO of SFA stated "The quest to overcome the effects of COVID-19 virus is an effort vital to humanity.  SFA welcomes the partnership of Melior Discovery and we are delighted that support from Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will enable us to draw upon our unique technologies to contribute to this effort."

About SFA Therapeutics

SFA Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing the treatment of inflammatory diseases, targeting NF-kB and Ras. Chronic inflammation has been implicated in a wide range of diseases, including HCC, Psoriatic Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Crohn's Disease, Liver Disease and relapse/recurrence in AML and CML.  SFA has five drugs under development and is targeting Psoriasis and Liver Cancer with their lead assets.

SFA's small-molecule drugs are derived from substances produced in the human microbiome, enabling a new platform for developing treatments for inflammatory diseases. SFA's technology has been exclusively licensed from Temple University. Please visit www.sfatherapeutics.com to learn more.

About Melior

Melior Discovery and Melior Pharmaceuticals, its sister company, are leaders in pharmaceutical drug repositioning using the unique theraTRACE^® platform comprised of multiplexed in vivo disease models.  Melior is using these capabilities to build an internal pipeline of development candidates and also partners with pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies to apply the theraTRACE^® platform and its in-depth in vivo pharmacology expertise to their development candidates. Melior Discovery and Melior Pharmaceuticals are privately held and located in Exton, PA.  For more information, visit www.meliordiscovery.com