RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC (September 19, 2024) – Dignify Therapeutics (Dignify), a leading developer of therapies for bladder and bowel dysfunction, recently received two significant research grants from the NIH. These grants add to the previous $20 million in research funding the company has received to advance multiple therapeutics for bladder and bowel disorders. Grants include R43DK138600 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and R43AG088838 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
Dr. Karl B. Thor, Chief Scientific Officer and Investigator on the grants indicated; “We are very grateful that multiple Institutes at the NIH support the severe, unmet, medical need for therapies to restore control of bladder and bowel dysfunction. These therapies are directed toward the elderly and people with neurological conditions such as spinal injury, multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, and diabetes. The needs of these populations are typically not discussed publicly by those afflicted and their caregivers and thus remain an unrecognized and underappreciated burden for them.” He further emphasized; “Bladder and bowel dysfunction are top reasons for institutionalization of the elderly due to the heavy burdens associated with domestic caregiving. Similarly, restoration of bladder and bowel dysfunction in people with spinal injury is more important to them than restoration of their ability to walk.“
The new grants will allow Dignify to expand its therapeutic research and development efforts into providing innovative drug therapies for treating urinary and fecal incontinence, respectively. Similar to the unmet medical need for drugs to induce on-demand voiding in the elderly and people with neurological conditions, there is also a severe need in these same populations to prevent incontinence episodes. Dr. Qiaojuan Zhang, Principal Investigator on grant R43AG088838, will join Dignify from Duke University Department of Neurology to lead the NIA-sponsored research.
About Dignify Therapeutics
Founded by a team of serial entrepreneurs who are internationally recognized scientists and clinicians, Dignify’s mission is to provide safe, effective, practical and convenient, “on-demand” pharmaceutical agents to treat bladder and bowel voiding dysfunctions. The company has been funded by RA Capital Management, Eshelman Ventures, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, NIDDK, NINDS, NICHD, NIA, US Defense Department, and the One NC Small Business Program. Dignify is located at the First Flight Venture Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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Anthony DiTonno, CEO
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