What’s new inevitably includes an element of the old. Clene Nanomedicine Inc., which just completed enrollment and dosed the first patient in its phase II trial in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), literally contains an element of the old in its lead nanocatalytic therapy: gold.
Investors have grown accustomed to hearing news of major announcements from big pharma and blue chip biotech companies during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference week. However, as it turned out, headline catalysts were in short supply. In the absence of any major M&A deals taking place, the event turned out to be unusually muted.
Pfizer Inc. was a swinging door today as it sold its small molecule for treating patients with behavioral and neurological symptoms to Biogen Inc., while licensing reboxetine’s data and intellectual property and granting esreboxetine’s development and commercialization rights to Axsome Therapeutics Inc.
Dublin-based Medtronic plc received a CE mark for its Percept PC neurostimulator to treat neurologic disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. It is the first deep brain stimulation system launched in the EU that integrates the company’s technology to sense and record brain signals, known as Brainsense. It’s intended to enable more personalized treatment driven by that data.
While the market gave Adamas Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares a thrashing Tuesday, newly installed CEO Neil McFarlane wouldn’t call it quits on the data generated from the phase III of ADS-5102, the Inroads study for treating multiple sclerosis patients with walking impairment.
Aspen Neuroscience Inc. hopes to get into the clinic to test autologous neuron replacement in Parkinson’s disease with a $6.5 million seed round. The financing featured several established life sciences venture investors; it was led by Domain Associates and Axon Ventures and included Alexandria Venture Investments, Arch Venture Partners, Orbimed, and Section 32.
The U.S. FDA has granted breakthrough device designation for Righteye LLC’s eye movement-tracking vision system as a test for Parkinson’s disease. Developed by researchers at PADRECC and Virginia Commonwealth University with funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and licensed to Righteye in 2016, the test requires patients to sit in front of an all-in-one tablet-looking device and follow a series of moving targets. The goal is to identify ocular tremors, a persistent issue with Parkinson’s patients that prevents steady fixation on objects and images. The noninvasive test, which measures an individual’s ability to follow objects on a screen, could help doctors not only confirm the difficult-to-diagnose disease, but also detect it at earlier stages.
The leucine-repeat rich kinase 2 (Lrrk2) gets most of its attention in the context of Parkinson's disease (PD). Variants in Lrrk2 are a major cause of familial PD (though familial PD makes up only a small fraction of overall PD cases).
The leucine-repeat rich kinase 2 (Lrrk2) gets most of its attention in the context of Parkinson's disease (PD). Variants in Lrrk2 are a major cause of familial PD (though familial PD makes up only a small fraction of overall PD cases).
