Anacor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ANAC) announced today that the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has been awarded $718,136 in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to discover and optimize novel oxaboroles as antimalarial drugs in collaboration with Anacor Pharmaceuticals. The NIH grant provides support for the period beginning September 30, 2011 and ending September 29, 2012.
Anacor's work with UCSF to discover new antimalarial agents is in addition to Anacor's collaboration with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) to develop AN3661, a novel boron-based antimalarial compound that is currently in preclinical trials, and a funded research program to discover backup compounds for AN3661. Anacor and MMV plan to conduct Phase 1 and Phase 2 proof of concept studies for AN3661, at which point GSK will have the option to license the program on an exclusive worldwide basis.
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