Diamyd Medical AB (STO:DIAMB)(Pink Sheets:DMYDY) with collaborators has received a three million dollar grant from the US National Institutes of Health to develop the Company's patented Nerve Targeting Drug Delivery System (NTDDS) for prevention of Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy. The grant allows Diamyd to expand the NTDDS technology to also target neuropathy, in addition to the Company's development portfolio for the treatment of pain.
The three-year grant funds the development of a NTDDS-based drug candidate, engineered to deliver a neurotrophic factor to nerve cells. It is hoped that use of NTDDS to deliver such a neurotrophic factor to cancer patients prior to initiating chemotherapy will prevent peripheral neuropathy, which is a common side effect of chemotherapy. Typical symptoms of peripheral neuropathy are numbness, pain, tingling, or burning sensations in hands and feet.
"Expanding the application of the NTDDS technology from pain therapy to include the treatment and prevention of neuropathy is something we have foreseen for a long time," says Peter Zerhouni, President and CEO of Diamyd Medical. "With the non-dilutive funding provided by the grant we can take this step earlier than anticipated."
The grant covers the costs for advancement of the new drug candidate through preclinical efficacy, toxicology and biodistribution studies, manufacturing and filing of an Investigational New Drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The grant is awarded to David Fink, M.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan, and Darren Wolfe, Ph.D., President of Diamyd, Inc., as principle investigators.
"Building off our clinical development of NTDDS for the treatment of pain, this grant will allow us to accelerate the critical steps in translating our preclinical findings in Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy into human therapy," says Darren Wolfe. "Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy represents an important unmet medical need that we have identified as an attractive market opportunity for our unique NTDDS technology."
"Chemotherapeutics are invaluable tools in the fight against cancer," says Dr. David Fink, a long-term collaborator doing research with Diamyd Medical's NTDDS technology. "Unfortunately, they also produce serious side effects, such as peripheral neuropathy, which often prevents administration of higher more effective chemotherapy doses. Treatment with NTDDS delivering a neurotrophic factor may not only prevent the development of Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy, but may also allow more effective chemotherapy doses to be administered to the patient."
Neurotrophic factors are a class of small proteins that were originally identified by their role in brain development and their ability to prevent specific cell death of nerve cells during development. In the adult nervous system, neurotrophic factors promote the survival, growth, connectivity, and proper function of nerve cells and aid in recovery of nerve function following injury. Targeted delivery of neurotrophic factors to nerve cells could lead to treatments for central and peripheral neurodegenerative diseases.
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