Under the terms of the agreement, the two commercial partners DNage and Solvay Pharmaceuticals will collaborate with eight top class academic groups to embark on a four year project with a total budget of E6.8 million. The program will be supported by TI Pharma who will contribute approximately E3.4 million with the remaining costs to be divided over the ten partners in the consortium.
The project entails a large-scale, groundbreaking effort to identify target molecules that can serve as the basis for the development of novel medicines for Parkinson and Alzheimer disease. DNage will use its accelerated ageing mouse models that are based on its intellectual property linking DNA damage to the development of ageing diseases.
The consortium will further have access to a large collection of human Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s brain tissue, and through integration of multidisciplinary expertise and innovative technologies, DNage and partners aim to identify dysregulated genes and proteins that may serve as potential drug targets or biomarkers relevant for these serious diseases.
The collaboration exemplifies Pharming’s strategy to expand its research engine and to strengthen its product pipeline.