"[The government] wants drugs given at least 24 hours after the event. Ours can be given at that point, but you'd want one given a week after if you had to," McManus said.

MORE GRANTS

While NIH continues to run studies, Aeolus is looking at other sources of funding. Right now, they're jockeying for grants from the U.S. Department of Defense and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA.

The U.S. Defense Department's Request for Proposal calls for countermeasures to protect against GI damage from radiation. The DoD will cover nearly all expenses in bringing to market any drug that wins the award, McManus said. News from the DoD proposal, submitted in February, should arrive in June, he said.

BARDA, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was created in 2006 by President George Bush, is sponsoring a drug to protect the lung from radiation damage. Their grant's terms are similar to the DoD's. Aeolus, which applied for their grant less than six months ago, expects a response from BARDA sometime this summer.

But Aeolus is far from the only contender in the field. Rivals include Cleveland BioLabs, a N.Y.-based company that has also applied to a DoD request and has received BARDA funding for their drug, a so-called Protectan, covered previously by DOTmed News. (See DM 11304)

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