Paralysis cure hint in NZ drug

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

An Auckland University spinoff company, Neuronz, has produced a drug which it hopes will one day help paraplegics walk again.

Initial laboratory experiments suggest the drug may repair crushed nerves in the spinal cord, which leave people paralysed.

Chief executive David Clarke has signed a partnership deal with a New York company, which does not want to be named, to test the drug on animals in the United States.

"They have paid a small amount up-front," he said.

"We own the compound, the intellectual property is ours. They do all the experiments."

If it succeeds, the drug offers the hope of healing paraplegics' damaged nerves.

At present, doctors can do little more than try to help patients feel comfortable.

Dr Rick Acland of Christchurch's Burwood spinal unit said only 30 per cent of patients who came into spinal units unable to move their legs regained their mobility - and then only through natural healing.

Researchers around the world are searching for ways to help the process with drugs or surgery.

Doctors in Brisbane are taking nerve cells from inside the noses of eight paraplegic volunteers, multiplying them in the laboratory and transplanting them into their spinal cords to replace damaged nerves.

Other researchers have developed drugs which helped rats and mice to start walking again after their spinal cords were damaged, although Dr Acland said often these did not have the same effects in humans.

"We believe that in the next 10 years in this area of medicine there are going to be huge developments, either in drugs to alter these mechanisms or potentially with stem cells," he said.

Neuronz senior scientist Dr Greg Thomas said repairing spinal cord injuries had become a "hot area", partly thanks to high-profile paraplegic cases such as Superman star Christopher Reeves, who was paralysed in a riding accident.

But the company's drug was still in its earliest stages.

Laboratory tests had found it could induce nerve cells to "migrate" within a testing chamber.

The tests in New York will see if the drug can induce nerve cells to migrate across damaged tissue in animals.

If those tests succeed, the next step will be to try it in humans.

"We are looking 10 years down the track, if that," Dr Thomas said.

Mr Clarke said the New York company was one of three international companies which were negotiating with Neuronz on long-term deals which could range from licensing rights to a full merger.

Neuronz's four biggest private investors all put more money into the firm last year. They are Australia's Macquarie Bank (20.3 per cent), Auckland company Oceania and Eastern Biotech (16.2 per cent), the NZ Seed Fund (15.2 per cent) and Stephen Tindall's K1W1 Ltd (12.2 per cent).