By: Tomas Ronolski - AllPennyStocks.com News

Friday, August 1, 2014

As the name should imply, acute radiation syndrome, also called radiation toxicity or radiation sickness, is serious, sometimes dead serious. It’s caused when all or most of the body is exposed to a high dose of penetrating radiation reaching internal organs over a short period of time. Causes have included nuclear weapons, accidents involving nuclear reactors, radiotherapy mishaps and even space travel as astronauts can be exposed to different types of radiation. Symptoms usually present very quickly, ranging from loss of appetite to impaired central nervous system function, then subside only to present again at a later time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even low exposure, doses below 1 gray (Gy) can cause symptoms, but as the radiation dose rises above 2 Gy, the prognosis starts to get bleaker. Exposure above 8 Gy usually spells death within two weeks, according to Merck (NYSE:MRK). If there is a good thing related to acute radiation syndrome, it is that it isn’t seen very frequently, compared to other illnesses. To that point, though, it’s important that treatments are available when needed.

Soligenex, Inc. (OTCQB:SNGX) is developing a diversified portfolio of products divided into biotherapeutics and vaccines/biodefense categories. With that, the Princeton, New Jersey-based Company is addressing diseases and conditions, such as Crohn’s disease and oral mucositis, as well as vaccines for anthrax and ricin toxin. In the acute radiation syndrome (ARS) space, Soligenix is working on OrbeShield (oral beclomethasone 17,21 –dipropionate or “oral BDP”) for gastrointestinal ARS, one of the three classic ARS syndromes (the others being bone marrow syndrome and cardiovascular/central nervous system syndrome). Oral BDP is also being developed in the Soligenex portfolio as a treatment for gastrointestinal inflammation in pediatric Crohn’s disease, chronic Graft-versus-Host disease and acute radiation enteritis.

BDP has been marketed worldwide for about four decades as the active ingredient in inhalants to treat asthma and allergic rhinitis. Sologenex’s OrbeShield is a two-tablet product, with one pill releasing BDP in the proximal portion of the GI tract and the other doing the same in the distal portion.

Lab studies in a dog model indicate that OrbeShield improves survival with dosing either 2 hours or 24 hours after exposure to a lethal dose of total body irradiation as compared to controls. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Investigational New Drug Application for OrbeShield for GI ARS and also granted Soligenex Fast Track and Orphan Drug designations for the oral therapy.

Soligenex has received government support in its OrbeShield efforts, namely the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA). In September 2013, the company was awarded contracts from the two organizations totaling $32.7 million for its GI ARS program. The NIAID contract is valued at $6.4 million over three years, with an initial award of $2.1 million granted last September.

On Friday, Soligenix said that the NIAID decided to exercise the option on the second leg of the contract to advance OrbeShield for GI ARS, providing another $2.1 million to the company.

"This continued funding, plus the BARDA contract awarded last year, has the potential to provide the necessary funding to advance the development of OrbeShield while building upon the scientific evidence supporting its use as a potential MCM [medical countermeasure] in GI ARS,” stated Dr. Christopher Schaber, president and chief executive of Soligenix, in a statement today.

Soligenex ended the first quarter with $5.6 million in cash. Wall Street isn’t reacting much to the next cash infusion with shares trading up by 2.5 percent at $2.05 (equating to a $40.9 million market cap), with only 22,000 shares changing hands with about 1 hour to go in the trading day.

Copyright © 2014 AllPennyStocks.com. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of AllPennyStocks.com's content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AllPennyStocks.com. AllPennyStocks.com shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.