IWT helps to accelerate reMYND’s Diabetes program with a grant of 1.48 million EUR for 2011-2012
reMYND NV announced that it has received a grant of 1.48 million EUR from IWT, the Flemish agency for Innovation by Science and Technology, to accelerate its Diabetes program.
reMYND’s Drug Discovery & Development focuses on the development of disease-modifying drugs for patients suffering from protein-misfolding disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM).
Currently, reMYND’s most advanced programs entail treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease aiming to decelerate – or even stop – neuronal degeneration by counter-acting tau or synuclein protein misfolding. Hence, such treatments would allow to slow-down disease progression in patients. In September 2010, reMYND signed a major strategic alliance with Roche to further develop and commercialise part of reMYND’s Alzheimer and Parkinson experimental treatments.
Recently, reMYND has diversified its drug discovery activities by including T2DM, another protein misfolding disorder. In T2DM patients, IAPP misfolding is believed to be a major cause of degeneration and death of insulin-producing β-cells. Last year, proof-of-concept was demonstrated in-vitro in β-cells, indicating that reMYND’s screening technology platform can be reconfigured to discover IAPP-toxicity inhibitors. Building on these promising findings, reMYND has launched a major effort to develop novel disease-modifying treatments for T2DM which would preserve insulin-producing β-cells and thus go well beyond currently available mere symptomatic treatments. In order to accelerate these exciting developments, IWT has now provided reMYND with a grant of 1.48 million EUR for 2011-2012. A possible extension into 2013 will be assessed at the end of 2012 based on the scientific progress realised and on the company growth. If all goes as planned, reMYND’s T2DM program would be at the end of 2013 in a similar stage of development as the Alzheimer program was at the time of out-licensing to Roche.
Commenting on the grant, Koen De Witte, Managing Director of reMYND said: “We are excited about this grant, not only for its potential acceleration of reMYND’s T2DM program but also because it validates our research approach into this disease area, having withstood a thorough evaluation by IWT and external scientific experts. This also broadens the scope of our pipeline beyond the Central Nervous System.”
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