Accelerator Life Science Partners launches new company to develop novel therapy for seizure disorders

Apr 27 2018

Accelerator Life Science Partners (Accelerator), a leading life science investment and management firm, today announced that it has launched Proniras Corporation, a company developing tezampanel for the treatment of a variety of seizure disorders. Proniras has licensed exclusive global rights to tezampanel (LY-293,558), a small molecule compound that has been evaluated as a potential therapy for acute migraine in more than 400 patients to date, from Eli Lilly and Company. The launch of Proniras is supported by an initial financing from investors including Alexandria Venture Investments, ARCH Venture Partners, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc., Watson Fund, L.P., WRF Capital and WuXi AppTec Corporate Ventures.

Recent studies demonstrate that tezampanel effectively arrests seizures in rodents exposed to the nerve agent soman¹ and is potentially superior to benzodiazepines, which are the current standard of care for a variety of seizure disorders. Data from previous preclinical studies of tezampanel suggest that the compound elicits its central nervous system effects by antagonizing glutamate signaling.

"Treatment of seizures that result from either physiologic or pharmacologic stimuli is suboptimal for many patients," said Christopher Toombs, PhD, DABT, co-founder and chief scientific officer at Proniras. "A robust body of clinical and preclinical data supports the potential utility of tezampanel as a novel therapy for seizures and seizure disorders. We believe that tezampanel could address significant unmet need for a safe, effective and durable seizure therapy."

Dr. Toombs was most recently co-founder and chief scientific officer of Faraday Pharmaceuticals, a Seattle-based biotechnology company. Previously, he held senior leadership positions at Cylerus, Inc., Ikaria, Inc. and Amgen, Inc. Accelerator will manage the company's executive operations.

"With tezampanel as its lead asset, Proniras is being established with a more advanced product development program than is typical for a start-up biopharmaceutical company," said Thong Q. Le, chief executive officer at Accelerator. "As a result, we believe that Proniras has substantial near- and mid-term opportunities for value creation in an indication that has not seen significant innovation in many years."