Icoria Receives Second Phase II SBIR Contract for Liver Injury Biomarkers
October 20 2005 - 9:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
NIAAA to fund continued research in detection of alcohol-related
diseases RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Oct. 20
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Biotechnology company Icoria, Inc.
(OTC:ICOR.OB) (BULLETIN BOARD: ICOR.OB) today announced that it had
received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from
the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA),
National Institutes of Health, worth close to $800,000. The Phase
II contract supports the application of metabolomics and gene
expression analysis in the study of alcohol-related diseases,
including liver and brain injury, in a study program entitled,
"Metabolomics: Alcohol Induced Toxicity." The contract is the
second Phase II SBIR contract Icoria has been awarded this year.
The company previously announced the receipt of a separate $1.2
million SBIR contract in a Current Report on Form 8-K and press
release issued August 29, 2005. "Together, the two Phase II SBIR
contracts help to support our biomarker discovery efforts on a
broad set of liver pathologies that span a variety of mechanisms,"
said Thomas Colatsky, Ph.D., Icoria's Chief Scientific Officer. "By
using metabolomics and gene expression to analyze different forms
of liver toxicity, we hope to identify new biomarkers for liver
disease that should have utility in the development of
highly-informative, minimally invasive diagnostics covering acute
as well as more chronic liver-related diseases, including alcoholic
and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease." In June 2004, Icoria
announced Phase I of this contract, which was undertaken in
collaboration with the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. In
Phase I, Icoria used metabolomics to identify key biochemicals in
the liver, brain and plasma that correlated with changes in tissue
pathology. Phase I of the contract was completed in March of this
year. After reviewing the results, the NIAAA approved Phase II of
the contract. Phase II will extend the Phase I findings to include
gene expression analysis in liver, brain and whole blood. Icoria
will probe this rich and expanded data set to identify biomarkers
of liver and brain toxicity and to explore mechanisms involved in
both alcohol dependence and withdrawal. Phase II Funding The NIAAA
SBIR Phase II Contract is worth $786,250 over a two-year period.
This project is funded in whole with Federal funds from the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National
Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services,
under Contract No. HHSN281200510008C. The Phase I contract was
worth $99,966 and was funded by Contract No. HHSN281200410004C.
Icoria estimates that the Federal funds allocated under these
contracts will support up to roughly seventy-five percent of its
"Metabolomics: Alcohol Induced Toxicity" research program. At
present, Icoria plans to support roughly twenty-five percent of the
total costs-an estimated $263,000-with funds from non-governmental
sources. About Icoria On September 19, 2005, Icoria executed a
merger agreement with Clinical Data Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDA) whereby
Clinical Data will acquire Icoria in an all- stock transaction
valued at up to $12.5 million. The acquisition is expected to close
late this year or in early 2006, pending approval by Icoria's
shareholders. More information on this transaction is available at
http://www.icoria.com/. More information on Clinical Data is
available at http://www.clda.com/. Icoria, Inc. is a biotechnology
company focused on the discovery of novel, multi-parameter
biomarkers using its unique multi-platform approach. Icoria intends
to use these future biomarkers internally to develop multi-analyte
diagnostics to define and grade pathology or disease state with a
high level of specificity and sensitivity, and use its technology
to help collaborators and customers develop better, safer drugs and
diagnostics and to identify targets, leads and drug/diagnostic
combinations for liver injury, metabolic disorders and cancer.
Icoria's shares trade on the over the counter bulletin board. This
press release contains forward-looking statements including, but
not limited to, Icoria's acquisition by Clinical Data, Inc., the
Company's expectations for its healthcare based business model and
its biomarker discovery platform. Such forward-looking statements
are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a
number of risks, factors and uncertainties that may cause actual
results, events and performance to differ materially from those
referred to in the forward-looking statements. These risks, factors
and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Icoria's ability
to identify biomarkers, early stage of development, history of net
losses, technological and product development uncertainties,
reliance on research collaborations, uncertainty of additional
funding and ability to protect its patents and proprietary rights.
Certain of these and other risks are identified in Icoria's
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2005,
March 31, 2005, as amended, and its Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2004, both as filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. The Company does not intend to update any
of the forward-looking statements after the date of this release to
conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our
expectations, except as may be required by law. DATASOURCE: Icoria,
Inc. CONTACT: Media-Public Relations of Icoria, Inc.,
+1-919-425-2999 Web site: http://www.icoria.com/
http://www.clda.com/
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