NeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is developing treatments for the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases, has raised an additional $9 million dollars in its second financing round, bringing the total amount raised in the round to $21 million. The products being developed by the Cambridge, Massachusetts, company was discovered by Prof. Beka Solomon of Tel Aviv University, which has licensed the technology to the US company.
NeuroPhage has raised $28.6 million since it founded in 2006, mostly from private investors, as well as from Shire Pharmaceuticals plc (LSE: SHP) and Merieux Développement SAS. The company is developing treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases caused by the misfolding of proteins in brain cells.
In an interview with "Globes" two years ago, NeuroPhage president and CEO Jonathan Solomon said that the company's treatments were based on the fact that neurodegenerative diseases were caused by an accumulation of amyloid beta fibrins in the brain. His first product, which was sold to Elan Corporation plc (NYSE: ELN), is an antibody that dissolves amyloid beta fibrins after they form. The product was subsequently sold to Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE; LSE: PFZ) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). A phase III clinical trial of the drug is due to be completed this year. If the results are successful, they will strongly support Solomon's hypothesis, which is still controversia.
Solomon and Tel Aviv University have commercialized another product to NasVax Ltd. (TASE: NSVX) - an antibody that is known to attach to a molecule that expresses the amyloid beta fibrin, thereby preventing its creation. This product is called a vaccine for Alzheimer's.
NeuroPhage's product is intended to overcome the fact that only small quantities of the antibody pass through the blood-brain barrier into the brain tissue. In the interview, Solomon told "Globes", "We found a virus in the digestive system of every person, a filamentous phage, which attacks bacteria. For some reason, it is very similar to the amyloid beta fibrin. When inhaling this virus, it enters the brain and links with the amyloid beta fibrins that it resembles, but because it is slightly different, it prevents them from creating hard blocks, and is subsequently excreted naturally.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 11, 2012
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