Xylyx Bio Awarded $2.2M NIH SBIR Fast-Track Grant from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Award supports development of a pre-clinical compound testing platform to predict anti-fibrotic drug response

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Sep 02, 2021, 08:34 ET

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Sept. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Xylyx Bio, Inc., a biotechnology company developing groundbreaking solutions for drug discovery and tissue modeling and repair, announced today that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Fast-Track grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance development of an anti-fibrotic drug testing platform that will help scientists discover and test drug candidates for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

The award will provide $2,230,301 to support key validation studies of the IPF IN MATRICO® compound testing platform, a physiologically-relevant pre-clinical disease model that recapitulates key features of human IPF to improve understanding of disease biology and accelerate IPF drug development.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a life-threatening chronic lung disease affecting millions worldwide, with a median survival of only 3 years. The two drugs approved to treat IPF have shown limited ability to slow disease progression, and development of effective drugs is hindered by a lack of predictive IPF models.

Xylyx Bio's IN MATRICO® compound testing platform aims to improve the physiological relevance and predictive value of pre-clinical IPF models and reduce the significant costs associated with late-stage failure due to poor efficacy.

John O'Neill, Chief Scientific Officer at Xylyx Bio and Principal Investigator of the project, stated: "We are addressing a critical need in the IPF field, as the pre-clinical models and testing systems that have been used for decades are not sufficient. Our goal is to deliver an effective IPF modeling and testing platform that will increase fundamental understanding of IPF and empower high-impact discoveries that ultimately improve outcomes for patients."

This grant is supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44HL158364. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

About Xylyx Bio, Inc.
Xylyx Bio, Inc. is a commercial stage biotechnology company that develops groundbreaking technologies related to the cellular microenvironment, with a focus in fibrosis, scarring, and skin health.

Contact
Andrea Nye
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SOURCE Xylyx Bio, Inc.