Velesco Pharmaceutical Services has been awarded a subcontract for analytical method development, manufacturing clinical supplies, and testing the stability of an investigational drug for the treatment for beta-thalassemia, a blood disorder that reduces the production of proteins that carry oxygen to cells throughout the body.

The subcontract award of $350,000 is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) through its Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program. The funds were awarded under a subcontract from Leidos Biomedical Research, prime contractor for the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. TRND staff select qualified contract research organizations to provide services supporting certain TRND drug development projects. The goal is to accelerate translation of promising therapeutics for treating rare and neglected diseases.