Bexion Pharmaceuticals Wins 2015 Tibbetts Award From the Small Business Administration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Margaret van Gilse
859-757-1652
[email protected]

COVINGTON, KY, June 1, 2015 — Bexion Pharmaceuticals LLC announced that the Small Business Administration (SBA) has awarded the Company the prestigious Tibbetts Award, recognizing Bexion as a “Model of Excellence” for the Federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Awarded to less than two dozen companies nationwide in 2015, Bexion joins an elite group of companies that have excelled through SBIR/STTR investment.

The 2015 Tibbetts Award recipients will be formally honored at a White House ceremony and  at the June 16 kickoff of the National SBIR/STTR Conference, where thousands of the best and brightest in the innovation ecosystem convene annually.

“Bexion’s development progression of our cancer therapeutic from early drug discovery to a planned Phase I First in Human Study was substantially fueled by the SBIR/STTR program,” said Dr. Ray Takigiku, Founder and CEO of Bexion. “As a recipient of 5 SBIR awards from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at NIH and matching Phase I and Phase II SBIR grants from the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Office of Entrepreneurship, Bexion has judiciously leveraged those resources to advance our drug to the clinic.”

About Bexion Pharmaceuticals

Bexion Pharmaceuticals is a privately-held biotech company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative cures for cancer. Bexion’s first-in class biologic, BXQ-350, has demonstrated selective tumor targeting with the potential for clinical efficacy in a broad range of cancers. In 2013 the NCI awarded Bexion a prestigious “Bridge Award” of $3MM to support testing of BXQ-350 in the clinic. In February 2015, the FDA granted Bexion Orphan Drug status for Saposin C, the active ingredient in its proprietary drug BXQ-350 for the potential treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of brain cancer.

About the Tibbetts Award

Named for the late Roland Tibbetts, widely accredited as being the ‘Father’ of today’s SBIR/STTR programs, the annual Tibbetts Awards are presented to companies from all over the United States who have been instrumental in supporting the success of the programs and/or utilizing SBIR/STTR investment to develop an ‘idea’ into a product or service that benefits the federal government’s research and development needs, the general public’s wellbeing, and the nation’s economy through technological innovation and the creation of high quality jobs – sometimes in newly created industries.

About Kentucky’s SBIR-STTR Matching Fund

Bexion received funding through Kentucky’s competitive SBIR/STTR Matching Funds program. Kentucky’s program matches all or part of federal SBIR/STTR awards received by Kentucky-based companies. It also provides a match to out-of-state companies, should they be willing to relocate to the Commonwealth. Since the start of the Commonwealth’s program, Kentucky businesses have achieved a higher success rate in receiving federal SBIR/STTR grants compared to the national average.

For more information, visit bexionpharma.dev.neptuneweb.com or contact Margaret van Gilse at [email protected].

Bexion media