DARA awarded $0.5M grant under Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for advancing KRN5500 and DB959

Nov 3 2010

DARA BioSciences (Nasdaq:DARA) announced today grant approvals by the Internal Revenue Service under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 for KRN5500 and DB959 in the amount of approximately $500,000 for the calendar year 2009.

The IRS consulted with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in conducting the program. In order to qualify for consideration, the HHS had to certify the project qualified as a qualifying discovery project;

1. Show reasonable potential to result in new therapies to treat areas of unmet medical need or prevent, detect, or treat chronic or acute disease and conditions;
2. Reduce long-term health care costs in the U.S. or significantly advance to the goal of curing cancer within the 30 year period beginning May 21, 2010; and
3. Be among those projects having the greatest potential to create and sustain (directly or indirectly) high quality, high-paying jobs in the U.S. and advance the U.S. competitiveness in the fields of life, biological, and medical sciences.

KRN5500 is a drug candidate for treating neuropathic pain in cancer patients. KRN5500 has successfully completed a Phase 2 clinical trial in which it met its primary endpoint of reduction of pain from baseline and was statistically significantly.

DB959 is a PPAR (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor) delta/gamma agonist, an oral drug in development for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes.  DARA has recently completed a Phase I clinical study for DB959 and these results will be announced shortly.