SAN FRANCISCO (August 23, 2023)—Exavir Therapeutics, a biomedical startup built on innovations developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, was awarded a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health.

The funding will help support the development of XVIR-110, an ultra-long acting HIV treatment co-invented by UNMC scientists Howard Gendleman, MD, and Benson Edagwa, PhD. Both are also co-founders of the California-based startup, which UNeMed named it’s Startup of the Year during the 2022 Innovation Awards.

“This [grant] speaks to XVIR-110’s transformative potential, but also the importance of American agencies and public-private partnerships in improving population health outcomes,” Alborz Yazdi, Exavir co-founder and CEO, said in a company news release. “We look forward to filing our [Investigational New Drug Application with the FDA] in short order to mark our transition to a clinical-stage company, and to fighting for our mission of transforming the lives of patients with chronic disease using ultra-long-acting medicines.”

Exavir’s ultra-long acting nanomedicines represent a critical step forward in HIV treatments, allowing the effective slow release of antiretroviral therapies in doses once every six months or longer. Success of current antiretroviral therapies usually requires strict adherence to daily dosing regimens.

The recent funding is expected to help Exavir prepare and complete the studies necessary to initiate clinical trials.

No timetable has been established for when those trials might begin.