Mass High Tech - November 9, 2007

Woburn biotech reels in $3.5M for ALS
Mass High Tech

Cambria Biosciences LLC reports it has won a $3.5 million contract from The ALS Association, a nonprofit based in Calabasas Hills, Calif., to develop treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. The four-year award is expected to fund discovery and early analysis of small molecules to treat the disease.

"It's an invariably fatal disease," said physician Leo Liu, president and CEO of Woburn's Cambria. People with the disease lose muscular function, he said, but their mind remains intact until the day they die.

Despite the fatal nature of the disease, there are few treatments and no cures for ALS. The disease is considered rare, affecting about 20,000 Americans. And its victims typically die within three to five years due to respiratory failure, according to the National Institutes of Health.

In addition to Cambria, several Massachusetts firms are working on treatments for ALS. Cambridge's Acceleron Pharma Inc., which has raised $87 million in venture capital, is developing a drug to treat neuromuscular problems in ALS patients. And RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp., a newly formed firm in Worcester, has reported it's doing early studies on an RNA-based treatment to target the genes behind the disease.

Also, a Cambridge nonprofit called the ALS Therapy Development Institute this year reported that the Arizona-based Muscular Dystrophy Association had pledged $6 million in each of the next three years toward its efforts to develop ALS treatments.

At Cambria, researchers plan to work on the ALS Association contract with Richard Morimoto and Richard Silverman, both of whom are drug experts at Northwestern University in Illinois, according to the association.