Following the investment by Quintiles, Kareus plans to submit an investigational new drug (IND) application for KU-046, a first-in-class new chemical entity discovered by Kareus for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
The company has also identified a lead series of molecules demonstrating potent, long-lasting insulin sensitisation with a broad therapeutic window for the treatment of Type-2 diabetes and will select a clinical candidate for development later in 2011.
Quintiles will conduct Phase I proof-of-relevance clinical trials for both KU-046 and the chosen diabetes candidate.
Kareus has developed molecules targeting diseases of the central nervous system based on its proprietary KARLECT chemistry and drug discovery platform which targets molecular and gene expression pathways.
It has discovered KU-046 to treat Alzheimer’s disease using the KARLECT platform which targets pathways upstream from the increased abeta peptide production and has demonstrated improvement in cognition in a number of pre-clinical models.
Kareus will also seek to develop novel small molecule candidates in metabolic diseases, including diabetes, and inflammation.
Patrick Doyle of Kareus Therapeutics said with Quintiles as their partner, the company is placed to accelerate the development of their drug pipeline and advance the first product candidates generated by discovery platform, KARLECT, into clinical studies.