The National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) has awarded Xeptiva Therapeutics and the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo a new grant, “Articulation between the Academy and the Productive Sector”. Both institutions applied in 2021, and ANII approved the grant to begin its execution in March 2022.
The project is entitled “Validation of the mechanism of action of an immunotherapy (vaccine) for the treatment of chronic pain in companion animals” and aims to deepen the understanding of the mechanisms of action through which the immunotherapies for chronic pain in dogs developed by the startup and the Institute work.
ANII contributes 70% of the total amount assigned to the project and Xeptiva the remaining 30%. The project will last 24 months. Dr. Emiliano Trias, adjunct researcher at the Institut Pasteur and CSO of Xeptiva, will be in charge of its scientific execution at the Institute’s Neurodegeneration Laboratory.
This government grant is a fundamental support for Xeptiva, since it will allow the company to acquire relevant knowledge about the immunotherapeutic products that have been developed for several years by the scientific team of the Institute and the company.
Xeptiva Therapeutics LLC is a clinical-stage biotech company dedicated to the development of immunotherapies to treat conditions associated with chronic neuroinflammation in companion animals. The company was created with the mission to improve companion animals’ healthspan (quality of life) and lifespan (years of life) by developing simple, affordable, disruptive and highly effective immunotherapies.
The Institut Pasteur de Montevideo (IP Montevideo) is one of the most recent affiliates of the Institut Pasteur International Network (RIIP in French), composed of 33 independent centers located in five continents and united by the same values. Dedicated to scientific research in biomedicine, IP Montevideo is composed of high-tech scientific platforms in areas such as genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, molecular and cellular biology. Its laboratories are open to young scientists’ research projects, it has become an international education center with courses on the latest biological knowledge and state-of-the-art technologies, and it promotes start-ups for the development of biotechnological applications.
The National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) is a government entity that promotes research and the application of new knowledge to the productive and social reality of Uruguay. ANII makes funds available to the public for research projects, national and international postgraduate scholarships and incentive programs for innovative culture and entrepreneurship, both in the private and public sectors.
ANII developed the National System of Researchers, a program of economic incentives for national researchers categorized based on a strict evaluation system. It also created the Timbó Portal, which allows free access to all kinds of scientific publications from around the world for all Uruguayans. ANII works as a mechanism for articulation and coordination between the actors involved in the development of knowledge, research and innovation.
