AusIndustry grant funding for Progen

Progen Industries has accepted a $3.39 million AusIndustry Commercial Ready grant to support the further development of the company's drug discovery program over the next three years.

This grant is a follow-on from the company's AusIndustry Start grant that concluded in June 2005. It will provide 50% funding support for the maturing drug discovery program. In the last three years, the drug discovery program has achieved all milestones including the synthesis of a series of new molecules with promising activity against key protein targets that mediate angiogenesis.

The discovery program has generated three new patent applications that strengthen Progen's intellectual property portfolio that now includes 15 patent families and 24 issued patents.

Lewis Lee, Progen's managing director said: "The AusIndustry grant system is without doubt extremely valuable to the Australian biotech industry. We are very grateful for the support provided by this, our second AusIndustry grant awarded to us. It is also a highly competitive peer reviewed grant system and we appreciate the confidence that the Australian government has in our drug discovery efforts. The grant will play a significant role in transforming our current early stage compounds into 'products' that are ready to enter human clinical trials. Creating products from within the company's own internal research is another indication of the company's growing depth and skill set. Products emanating from this research in future will complement the development of our two current product candidated PI-88 and PI-166."