Researchers at Vortex Therapeutics have been awarded a $2.2 Million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance the therapeutic development of their novel small molecule MYC inhibitor.
The project, titled “Development of a novel MYC inhibitor for cancer therapy” (1R44CA302283-01A1) was selected for an NIH Direct to Phase II SBIR award by the National Cancer Institute.
The research, led by Principal Investigator and Vortex CEO Dr. Ben Vollrath, aims to complete process optimization, GLP toxicology studies, and other evaluation of their lead compound, VOR-001, to enable near-term IND-submission.
This NIH funding is a vital step toward the IND-submission and clinical development of our lead MYC inhibitor, VOR-001. The Vortex team is focused on advancing IND-enabling studies as rapidly as possible to be in position to file and IND on this drug candidate. Previous work has demonstrated that VOR-001 is orally bioavailable, with an excellent safety profile, and has profound anti-tumor efficacy in a variety of relevant tumor models. We expect this first-in-class drug will be highly effective against a range of cancer types.