Tromsø, Norway, February 5, 2015 – Pharmasum Therapeutics AS (“Pharmasum” or the “Company”), a neuroscience drug development company, is pleased to announce the award of a grant of up to NOK 12 million from the Research Council of Norway’s highly competitive User-driven Research based Innovation programme (BIA) to fund drug development of novel therapeutics for inhibiting Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Pharmasum has key competences in commercialising novel drugs in neurology, with a solid technological platform supported by structural biology and drug design. There is an enormous unmet medical need and substantial interest in alternative drug targets for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. According to CEO Anders Fugelli, formerly of GlaxoSmithKline and Lytix Biopharma: “The grant from the Norwegian Research Council together with generous support from Innovation Norway will allow us to fast-track a programme aimed at inhibiting the progression of Alzheimer´s disease. Our drugs target a process in the brain that is currently in focus amongst large pharmaceutical companies – tangles in the brain of a protein called Tau. Within the last year, two large deals have been struck between smaller biotechs and large pharma companies in this space, both in late preclinical or early clinical phases, and several big companies are interested in what we are working on. For investors, we anticipate an M&A exit within 5-7 years.”
The team behind Pharmasum have extensive global experience within neurology R&D from GSK as well as start-up company experience. “In order to capitalise on the commercial potential that lies in our advanced compound collection, Pharmasum is currently looking for an additional NOK 5 million in private funding to complement research grants. This will enable us to select our Lead Candidate in the next 12 months and perform Lead Optimisation work before preparing for entry into clinical trials”, concludes Fugelli.
For further information, contact:
Anders Fugelli, CEO
+47 924 81 432
afugelli@pharmasum.com
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