OSEO awards €10.4 million to DIPPAL project targeting Alzheimer's disease

Nov 18 2010

The biotech companies PHARNEXT and BIOSYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL, the Bordeaux Hospital where CMRR is located, the university Bordeaux Segalen and Inserm (the center U897 "Epidemiology and Biostatistics") have joined forces to carry out the DIPPAL²ⁱ project. This innovative research and industrial development project is targeting Alzheimer's disease (AD) and has attracted significant financial support from OSEO (the French state innovation agency).

The DIPPAL project will run for 6 years and will be financed by OSEO's Strategic Industrial Innovation program to the tune of €10.4 million. OSEO's financial package comprises a €2.7 million grant and a €7.7 million loan (repayable if the project is a success). The project will be led by PHARNEXT. If successful, this ambitious industrial R&D project DIPPAL project will provide Alzheimer's patients with diagnostic and therapeutic solutions - thus addressing a pressing public health need by allowing access to early medical intervention and lessening the socio-economic impact of AD. The project's deliverables will contribute to a better understanding of early-stage AD. The DIPPAL project will also leverage Pharnext and Biosystems International's national and international business and create jobs in the Paris region and to expand internationally. OSEO will assist the DIPPAL partners for the duration of the DIPPAL project, as it did with during the set-up phase.

The DIPPAL project's goals: At present, there is neither a simple, reliable, non-invasive test for early diagnosis of AD nor an effective disease-modifying treatment. Given this context, the DIPPAL project's three main objectives are to:

• develop and validate a prototype multiparameter blood test for the early, reliable diagnosis of AD.
• discover a Pleodrug™ for the effective treatment of AD based on above tests and take it through to the end of Phase II clinical trials.
• develop a companion test to monitor the effectiveness of the Pleodrug™ in humans and/or to determine the sub-population of "responder" patients.

The DIPPAL project partners will then seek to license the prototype diagnostic test, the Pleodrug™ and the theranostic to diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies, who will complete the future products' development and commercialization.