Under the collaboration, Fast Forward will fund the preclinical advancement of Concert’s C-21191, a deuterium-modified subtype-selective GABAA modulator.
Fast Forward and National MS Society chief research officer Timothy Coetzee said the collaboration demonstrates Fast Forward’s commitment to pursue and fund innovative medicines that can address unmet needs and improve the quality of life for people living with this disease.
Concert Pharmaceuticals president and CEO Roger Tung said the partnership with Fast Forward enables them to accelerate development of C-21191 and will provide the team with a therapy for the management of symptoms associated with MS.
"It further validates our novel deuterated chemical entity platform as a highly efficient approach to creating innovative compounds like C-21191 by leveraging previous industry R&D investment," Tung added.
In preclinical studies, C-21191 has demonstrated improved pharmacokinetic characteristics and equivalent efficacy to gabapentin in a neuropathic pain model.
Concert Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on applying the company’s deuterated chemical entity platform to develop novel and differentiated small molecule drugs.