An immunotherapy company based in Farmington has been awarded a federal grant to complete Phase I trials for a new hepatitis B virus (HBV) treatment.
CaroGen Corp. announced that the Department of Defense has recommended up to $6.2 million in funding to advance clinical trials of the new immunotherapy treatment, known as CARG-201.
CARG-201 is being developed through a collaboration between CaroGen, Yale University and Albany Medical College.
“Over 300 million people in the world are chronically infected with HBV and there is no cure,” said Bijan Almassian, CEO and co-founder of CaroGen. “Development of the CARG-201 series represents a novel approach to increase patients’ immune responses to HBV and reduce risks of disease progression to liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma.”
CaroGen has been awarded more than $16 million in grants from the National Institute of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Department of Defense, the company said.
“With this additional investment, the government has underwritten the entire HBV project and has substantially de-risked the program for further investment,” Almassian said.
