Oxford-based E-therapeutics (ETX) announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to work with a global, “top five” pharmaceutical company on a drug discovery project associated with neurodegenerative diseases.
The project, taken on by e-therapeutics and the unnamed drug firm, will focus on the specific area of biology related to neurodegenerative diseases, a condition which affects over one billion people across the globe currently.
Dr Ray Barlow, CEO at E-Therapeutics, said: "We are thrilled to be working with one of the largest global pharma companies in an exciting area of disease biology where there is a significant unmet need.”
Shares in E-therapeutics were up over 16% this morning following the news.
The ambitions of E-therapeutics revolve around revolutionising disease treatment by offering a new reductionist approach to drug discovery.
And now the company are aiming to delve into effective research for Neurodegenerative disease -- the disease occurs when there is progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, which can lead to a range of diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alxeimer’s and Huntington’s.
As an area that has seen little innovation until recently, drug discovery is considered unsustainable with huge room for improvement -- advancement here will be particularly significant in treating diseases, specifically those that are so widespread.
Up until now, traditional approaches have also seen pharmaceutical companies take the hit with declining investment returns due to high failure rates.
Dr Barlow commented, “This deal will allow us to directly showcase our Network-Driven Drug Discovery (NDD) technologies to them and the work has the potential to generate new therapeutic assets to add to our existing portfolio.”
Under the 12-month agreement, the AIM-listed company will use the NDD approach to identify novel disease pathways.
The results and the IP of the project will remain the property of E-Therapeutics.
Dr Barlow further added: “We continue to work on a number of different types of external collaborations and look forward to sharing further news during the remainder of the year."
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