The Development Bank of Saxony (SAB) in Germany has agreed to provide Nuvo Research with up to €4.4 million (approximately $5.4 million) of funding for the further development of its improved reformulated version of WF10 (Reformulated WF10).
The funding will take the form of a nonrepayable reimbursement of specific development monies expended by Nuvo until July 2014. The SAB funding will be used to support CMC activities, in vitro experiments, and a number of preclinical studies relating to Reformulated WF10, for which Nuvo filed a U.S. provisional patent in December 2011. These studies are being conducted by Nuvo in partnership with the University of Leipzig and the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) in Leipzig. The total cost of this development program is estimated to be €6.3 million (approximately $7.7 million).
Nuvo will have certain contractual obligations to the SAB including the obligation to provide matching funding from its own resources of €1.9 million (approximately $2.3 million) over the two year period ending in July 2014. Nuvo will own or have exclusive global rights to commercially exploit all WF10 related intellectual property that comes from the funded projects.
In the fall of 2009, the SAB committed to provide funding over a three-year period of approximately €2.2 million (about $2.7 million) for two WF10 development projects. With the most recent commitment from the SAB, the total funding is approximately €6.6 million (about $8.1 million) toward a €10.8 million (approximately $13.3 million) development program.
Nuvo believes that WF10 has the potential to treat a wide range of medical conditions including autoimmune disorders. In 2010, Nuvo announced that its European Phase II clinical trial evaluating WF10 as a treatment for severe allergic rhinitis met its primary and secondary end points with a p-value of less than 0.001.