IU Spinoff Company Receives Federal Grant to Continue Drug Development

INDIANAPOLIS -- ApeX Therapeutics, which is working on innovative molecular-targeted treatments for cancer and eye disease based on Indiana University School of Medicine research, has received a federal grant of more than $150,000 to continue development of the therapies.

The Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project program at the Department of Health and Human Services provides funds to projects with potential to produce new therapies, address unmet medical needs, reduce the long-term growth of health care costs and advance the goal of curing cancer.

“We are delighted to receive this grant that provides ApeX with additional resources to continue to progress our new therapies for the benefit of patients,” said Martin Haslanger, president and CEO of ApeX.

“This grant is further validation of ApeX’s approach to novel, targeted drugs to treat some of the most pernicious cancers with the lowest survival rates, such as brain tumors and pancreatic cancer,” said Mark R. Kelley, Ph.D., the scientific founder of ApeX, the Betty and Earl Herr Professor in Pediatric Oncology Research at the IU School of Medicine and associate director for basic science research at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center.

ApeX is developing potential drug candidates based on research into the regulatory mechanisms of cells and how those mechanisms can be manipulated when developing cancer treatments. In particular, Dr. Kelley’s work has examined a protein called APE1 and its activities in tumor development and in age-related macular degeneration.