RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Nov 02, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCRX) today announced that the Company had been awarded $1.1 million in grants under the U.S. Government's Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) program to advance the development of the Company's clinical programs for peramivir, BCX4208 and forodesine, as well as the pre-clinical BCX4161 kallikrein inhibitor and JAK inhibitor programs.

"We are pleased to receive these grants and to have our clinical and pre-clinical programs recognized as potential treatment options to address unmet medical needs," said Jon Stonehouse, President and Chief Executive Officer at BioCryst. "BioCryst remains committed to advancing novel therapeutics for patients with serious diseases and these grants will help to further each of these programs."

Included as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the QTDP program provided a tax credit to encourage investments in new therapies to prevent, diagnose and treat acute and chronic diseases. Companies, such as BioCryst, that cannot currently use a tax credit were allowed to apply for a cash grant in lieu of a tax credit.

To be eligible for the program, projects had to demonstrate reasonable potential to result in new therapies to treat areas of unmet medical need; prevent, detect or treat chronic or acute disease and conditions; reduce long-term health care costs in the U.S.; or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within a 30-year period. In addition, preference was given to projects that showed the greatest potential to create and sustain (directly or indirectly) high quality, high-paying jobs in the U.S., and advance U.S. competitiveness in the fields of life, biological and medical sciences. Projects were selected jointly by the Treasury Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. For more information please visit: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/QTDP_PIM/.

About BioCryst

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals designs, optimizes and develops novel small-molecule pharmaceuticals that block key enzymes involved in infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancer. BioCryst currently has three novel late-stage compounds in development: peramivir, a neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment of influenza, BCX4208, a purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) inhibitor for the treatment of gout, and forodesine, an orally-available PNP inhibitor for hematological malignancies. Utilizing crystallography and structure-based drug design, BioCryst continues to discover additional compounds and to progress others through pre-clinical and early development to address the unmet medical needs of patients and physicians. For more information, please visit the Company's Web site at www.biocryst.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future results and achievements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Please refer to the documents BioCryst files periodically with the SEC and located at http://investor.shareholder.com/biocryst/sec.cfm.

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SOURCE: BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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