Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals Awarded NIH SBIR Grant for Smart Growth Factor Technology

Proceeds from the award will be used to advance novel "Smart Growth Factors" toward clinical development

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May 05, 2015, 02:50 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today the award of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Silver Creek is a San Francisco based biotechnology company that discovers and develops targeted protein therapeutics to selectively repair tissues damaged by disease. This award will be used to advance their proprietary protein therapeutics engineered to repair heart tissue following a heart attack.

Silver Creek's Smart Growth Factors (SGFs) are designed to selectively activate growth factor receptors in tissues damaged by disease, resulting in highly localized therapeutic benefits while also avoiding undesirable side effects. The therapeutics are currently in preclinical development to study their effects in regenerating tissues damaged by heart and kidney disease. "While growth factors have long been known to activate tissue repair mechanisms in preclinical research, growth factor-based therapies have been fundamentally limited by their short circulation time and off-target effects," said Matt Onsum, President and CEO of Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals. "Silver Creek's Smart Growth Factor technology has demonstrated sustained and local activation of growth factor mediated repair mechanisms in preclinical research. Silver Creek's technology holds great promise for unlocking the potential of growth factors as therapeutics, including treatment of devastating diseases such as heart and kidney disease. We are pleased that this grant from the NIH will help us further develop therapeutic solutions for patients in these indications."

About Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals
Silver Creek is pioneering a new class of medicines (Smart Growth Factors^TM) to repair and regenerate functional tissues. These molecules are designed to promote resilience and regeneration of damaged tissues after acute or chronic injury. Growth factor therapies have historically been hindered by short half-lives and off-target effects. Silver Creek uses computational design and systems modeling to engineer therapeutics that improve tissue specificity and prolong activation. This approach has enabled the Company's SGFs to potently act at the site of damage with minimal impact on healthy cells in preclinical research. Silver Creek's initial focus is in developing treatments for heart and kidney disease. Silver Creek was spun out from Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2010.

SOURCE Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.