Tuberculosis biotech Aarden expects polished drug by year’s end

Aarden Pharmaceuticals, which has an approach that attacks previously treatment-resistant intracellular proteins in the body, will spend the year fine tuning its lead drug candidate that treats tuberculosis. The company, based in Indiana, hopes its compound will be ready for IND-enabling studies by year’s end.

At the end of 2010, Aarden reloaded with nearly $750,000 in grants and private investment, including money from Indiana’s BioCrossroads seed fund, President and CEO Gary Noonan said. That money is roughly the same amount the company raised in 2009. Clinical trials for the company’s tuberculosis drug are likely two years away, Noonan said.

Aarden spent 2010 developing a more potent version of its tuberculosis drug. Its technology inhibits protein tyrosine phosphatases, a step which scientists have long believed will unlock new treatments for an array of afflictions.

Aarden also hopes to advance two other treatments, one for cancer and the other for diseases including diabetes and lupus. But both are about a year behind the tuberculosis drug, Noonan said.