NeuroPhage gets $17M boost for brain therapeutics

Pharmaceutical company NeuroPhage has nailed $15 million in financing for therapeutic drugs for neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson's, the company announced March 25.

NeuroPhage, based in Cambridge, Mass., is preparing a number of therapeutic compounds for development and potential commercialization, especially the novel NPT088, which uses what the company is calling its general amyloid interaction motif (GAIM) that is able to target multiple forms of misfolded proteins in aggregation.

"This substantial financing will enable NeuroPhage to progress a robust [investigational new drug] package for NPT088 and prepare for the clinical evaluation of a completely new approach to treat devastating neurological diseases," commented Jonathan Solomon, president and CEO for NeuroPhage in a statement. "We are grateful for the continued support from our investors and look forward to advancing the GAIM platform which has the promise to address multiple disease-driving misfolded proteins simultaneously."

These misfolded proteins are represented in a range of neurodegenerative diseases, not only Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, but Huntington’s disease and still others. Misfolded protein aggregates include plaques and tangles and many neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by one or a combination of these.

GAIM targets multiple types of misfolded protein deposits, including amyloid beta plaques, tau tangles and Lewy bodies, otherwise known as alpha synuclein inclusions. NeuroPhage is working on research and development of therapeutics that will not only prevent but also remediate some of the existing aggregates in the brain. This GAIM platform of pharmaceuticals reduces targeted oligomers without undesirable interaction with monomers, molecules that can create polymers through chemical bonds.

"NeuroPhage's recent progress in the understanding of the GAIM mechanism opens up various indications spanning the common diseases Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and also rare ailments such as Huntington's disease and Transthyretin amyloidosis," chairman of NeuroPhage's scientific advisory board Franz Hefti added. “This represents a breakthrough approach that holds great promise for patients.”

The company will still have to go through continued preclinical and clinical trials as well as regulatory approval for any new pharmaceutical to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness.