Transtasman deal for new brain drug

Auckland company Neuren Pharmaceuticals - listed on the Australian Stock Exchange - has done a transtasman deal to develop new drugs to repair brain and spinal cord damage.

Associate Minister for Industry and Regional Development Pete Hodgson is expected to release details today of a $635,000 grant from the Australia New Zealand Biotechnology Partnership Fund.

This will be matched by $635,000 from Neuren and $1.27 million invested by Australian company Metabolic Pharmaceuticals.

Neuren's chief scientific officer, Professor Peter Gluckman, said the company had discovered the genetic family for novel small molecules, called neuro-regenerative peptides, that made chemicals in the brain used to regulate development and possibly repair.

"This is big. This is a new class of drug. There's nothing else like this that we're aware of," Gluckman said.

Treatments under examination include spinal injury, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, brain trauma and stroke damage, and peripheral neuropathy - nerve death in fingers and extremities caused by diabetes. Compounds under development can regenerate damaged brain cells, turn residual stem cells into neurons and build connections between cells.

The new funding will be spent on drug development, defining the target disease and decide the therapeutic approach.

Metabolic's area of expertise is the development of small molecules into usable drugs.

Dosage levels, chemistry for manufacture, cost of goods, stability and storage are among issues to be tackled over the next 18 months prior to the drugs entering phase one - human safety trials.

Neuren chief executive David Clarke said the market for central nervous system drugs for spinal injury, motor neuron disease and multiple sclerosis was worth more than US$4 billion.

Although the potential market is worth billions, Clarke said the company preferred to share the costs, and risks, of a development process that could last several years.

Clarke said partnership with Australia was essential to develop the treatments.

Professor Gluckman is a founding director of the Auckland University Liggins Institute and the National Research Centre for Growth and Development, as well as his role at Neuren.