New Haven drug developer Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. received a federal research grant to investigate the potential of one of its novel antibacterial compounds to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Achillion said the small business innovation research grant from the National Institutes of Health will finance further analysis of compound ACH-702, which has shown some promise inhibiting a key enzyme tied to the formation of the virulent mycobacterium tuberculosis strain. The grant amount was not specified.
Achillion is collaborating its research with TB expert Dr. Michael Cynamon of the Syracuse Veterans Administration Medical Center, who will perform the antibacterial testing.
Achillion’s focus is on developing and marketing drugs to treat such infectious diseases as hepatitis C, resistant bacterial infections and HIV.
