Publication: Scrip World Pharmaceutical News

Date: 7 March 2007

Words: 631

Proximagen reveals promising alternative to L-DOPA for Parkinson's disease

Proximagen Proximagen Neuroscience has ended the fiscal year with positive preclinical data for PRX1, a series of prodrug candidates for the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson's disease.

The project was conceived as an improved L-DOPA, the “gold standard" for the alleviation of Parkinson's disease symptoms, accounting for 70% of the prescription market.

Professor Peter Jenner, Proximagen's founder and chief science officer, noted that there had not been any attempts to improve L-DOPA's shortcomings. Generic forms of the drug replicate its instability - a short half-life (3-4 hours), and peak and trough blood levels which provoke dyskinesia and bradykinesia in patients.

The PRXl programme produced four advanced lead candidates. Preclinical studies have shown that one of these, PRXl157, has a biological half-life of 6-8 hours, and provides more stable and constant plasma levels.

The company is in the process of determining dosage requirements, and plans to file an IND later this year. It expects to see the compound start clinical trials next year, and hopes that it will eventually compete with Duodopa, an intraduodenal infusion of carbidopa and levodopa developed by Neopharma (now part of Solvay) for the treatment of late-stage Parkinson's disease.

Professor Jenner says Duodopa costs £27,000 per year per patient, and he hopes that the PRXl series will provide a cheaper but just as effective alternative.

...other projects

The company has three other neurodegenerative projects in its pipeline. PRX2, for the inhibition of L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia, was advanced by licensing in drug candidates from Northwestern University, US, last May. Preclinical studies have suggested that the same mechanism of action as the licensed molecules could also be effective in the treatment of depression and pain.

Proximagen's PRX4 programme, which Professor Jenner described as the classical biotech long-term high-risk project, aims to confer neuroprotection in an increasingly elderly population. PRX4 derivatives have been found to inhibit neurodegeneration in neuronal cells.

The PRX5 programme has revealed a series of novel compounds that target cognitive decline, common to around 10% of people aged 60 and over. This year Proximagen hopes to characterise orally active drug candidates which halt cognitive decline in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases as well as other dementing illnesses.

The company is already planning to increase the therapeutic scope of its projects, in the direction of pain, cognition, depression and anxiety.

For the full year ending last November, the company had a turnover of £737,509, compared with £878,310 for the previous year. This was composed of revenue from its fee-for-service business, which provides some financial support to its R8D programmes.

Service contracts are already in place with GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Orion, Lundbeck, Neurocrine Biosciences, Schwarz Pharma, Elbion, Lilly, Fujimoto, Shire and Kyowa. Proximagen believes that these relationships not only increase its market intelligence but will act as a conduit to future licensing out of proprietary programmes.

The company's pretax losses widened on a sharp increase in spending. Thanks to a tax credit Proximagen made a small, £4,612 (0.3 pence per share) net profit in fiscal 2005, but last year showed a net loss of £1.6 million, or 8 pence per share. There was a fivefold increase in R8D spending this year to £1.74 million.

There was also a considerable difference in administrative expenses incurred – a 36% jump to £860.818. James Hunter, the finance director, explained that this was due to costs associated with being a publicly listed company for the entire year, as opposed to only eight out of twelve months the previous year, a rise in headcount from 12 to 19 and legal costs associated with intellectual property protection.

Proximagen also drew attention to its cash position, which stood at £11.5 million at the end of the fiscal vear, down from £13 million at the end of 2005.