The agreement includes annual license fees and milestone payments which could total approximately $38 million paid to Neuralstem for each licensed product.
The license covers a library of Neuralstem compounds, discovered using Neuralstem's patented human neural stem cells. The company said that the compounds have been shown in adult mice to recruit and stimulate the body's own stem cells to form new neurons in the brain, and may be useful in healing and protecting injured brain areas.
“Neuralstem's ability to grow regionally specific, physiologically relevant human nerve cells in large quantities, in vitro (in dishes) provides a unique tool for discovering drugs to treat neurological and psychiatric diseases,” said Richard Garr, Neuralstem president and CEO
Neuralstem recently received a $500,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the possible effectiveness of its compounds to treat depression.