R.I. biotech companies share $4.6 million in grants for health care therapies

PROVIDENCE – Fourteen Rhode Island companies will share $4.6 million in federal grants to develop new and cost-saving health care therapies, two federal agencies announced Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Treasury unveiled the grants as part of program that delivered $1 billion in grants and tax credits to 2,923 companies across 47 states and Washington, D.C.

“The United States has the most innovative companies, the most ambitious entrepreneurs and the most productive workers in the world,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “These grants will help make sure our companies, entrepreneurs and workers can continue to invest and innovate, which will strengthen our economy now and far into the future.”

The grants come from the new Therapeutic Discovery Program included in the Affordable Care Act signed into law in March. Companies were able to apply for grants or tax credits for investments made during 2009 or 2010.

Rhode Island companies receiving grants were:

• Jamestown-based BCR Diagnostics, $204,630 for developing engineered spores as fluorogenic biological indicators for sterility testing.

• Providence-based Beech Tree Labs Inc., $163,873 for developing a nicotine craving therapy.

• Providence-based Calmar Pain Relief, $244,479 for pain clinics.

• Cumberland- based Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc., $244,479 for extended-release, tamper-resistant opiod.

• Providence-based EpiVax Inc., two grants totaling $252,722 for a therapeutic HIV vaccine and development. of tregitopes as a therapeutic for immune modulation

• East Providence-based IlluminOss Medical Inc., $244,479 for developing a photodynamic therapeutic bone stabilization system.

• Lincoln-based In Cytu Inc., four grants totaling $514,694 to develop cancer vaccines.

• Providence-based Isis Biopolymer Inc., $244,479 for development of the Isis Patch.

• Woonsocket-based MultiCell Technologies Inc., three grants totaling $733,438 for projects listed as “MCT-475,” “MCT-465” and “MCT-125.”

• Providence-based Myomics Inc., $244,479 for treatment of skeletal muscle weakness and fatigue disorders.

• Providence-based NABsys Inc., $244,479 for sequencing DNA.

• Lincoln-based Neurotech USA Inc., three grants totaling $733,438 for projects listed as “NT-501,” “NT-502” and “NT-503."

• East-Providence-based startup Prothera Biologics LLC, $244,479 for therapeutic tole of inter-alpha inhibitor proteins.

• Tivorsan Pharmaceuticals Inc., $244,479 for treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

In addition, the Rhode Island Mood and Memory Research Institute qualified for $244,012 in federal tax credits. The credit covers up to 50 percent of the cost of qualifying biomedical research. It was only available to companies with fewer than 250 employees.

Federal officials said they provided the grants so companies without the need for tax credits could also take advantage of the program.