Stem Pharm has been awarded a $1.7 million SBIR grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the company announced recently.

According to a release, the grant will help Stem Pharm optimize its technology and produce validation data necessary for successful market commercialization.

“(W)e are thrilled that the NIH sees the commercial and societal benefits of Stem Pharm’s technology to the point that they have supported our development efforts,” Stem Pharm CEO Steven Visuri said in a statement.

Stem Pharm said its neural model may help reduce the reliance on animal testing for the biopharmaceutical and industrial chemical industries.