Geneva, Switzerland, 20 September 2018 – Addex Therapeutics (SIX: ADXN), a leading company pioneering allosteric modulation-based drug discovery and development, announced today that it has joined the Human Drug and Brain Research (THuNDR2) initiative. THuNDR2 is a collaboration between leading UK neuroscientists, drug development experts and Addex which has been established to study the role of the D1 receptor, the main dopamine receptor, in human brain function with a grant of £1.2 million from the Wellcome Trust. The D1 receptor is believed to play a vital role in attention, concentration, as well as addiction to tobacco and other drugs. The THuNDR2 initiative is led by Prof David Nutt from Imperial College London and includes the universities of Cambridge, Bristol, Exeter, Oxford and Kings College London.
“THuNDR2 is a landmark biomedical resource funded by Wellcome that will provide a much needed boost to human experimental neuroscience both in the UK and across the world for many years to come,” explained Prof Nutt. “Securing Addex permission for access to ADX10061 was vital for our success and we believe will allow us to advance exponentially our understanding of dopamine’s function in the brain and effect on human health.”
The Wellcome Trust grant enables the synthesis, formulation and storage of ADX10061 to medical standards, allowing vital research on brain function currently not accessible. ADX10061 will be made available to other UK and international psychopharmacology researchers and included in the ECNP Medicines Chest, an initiative by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) to provide researchers access to pharmacological tools to support human experimental medicine studies.
“The THuNDR2 initiative brings together many of the world’s leading neuropharmacologists to address key questions regarding brain function. Addex is eager to play an active role in moving forward our understanding of the importance of dopamine which may lead to us identifying a development path for ADX10061,” stated Robert Lütjens, PhD, Head of Discovery at Addex Therapeutics.
In return for supplying access to ADX10061 and its regulatory, clinical data package, Addex gains access to data generated from associated research studies.
“Being part of THuNDR2 is an important part of our ongoing strategy to collaborate with leading academic institutions to advance our understanding of our portfolio of drug candidates. ADX10061 has completed multiple Phase 2 clinical studies and has been shown to be safe and well tolerated. So for the right indication, ADX10061 could be advanced rapidly into additional clinical studies,” said Tim Dyer, CEO of Addex Therapeutics.
About Addex Therapeutics
Addex Therapeutics (www.addextherapeutics.com) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel, orally available, small molecule allosteric modulators for neurological disorders. Allosteric modulators are an emerging class of small molecule drugs which have the potential to be more specific and confer significant therapeutic advantages over conventional "orthosteric" small molecule or biological drugs. Addex' allosteric modulator drug discovery platform targets receptors and other proteins that are recognized as essential for therapeutic intervention - the Addex pipeline has been generated from this pioneering allosteric modulator drug discovery platform. Addex's lead drug candidate, dipraglurant (mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator or NAM) has successfully completed a Phase 2a POC in Parkinson's disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia (PD-LID), and is being prepared to enter registration trials for PD-LID. In parallel, dipraglurant's therapeutic use in dystonia is being investigated. Addex's second clinical program, ADX71149 (mGluR2 positive allosteric modulator or PAM) is being developed in collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc for epilepsy. In addition, ADX71441 (GABAB receptor PAM) program was awarded a $5.3 million grant by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, a division of National Institutes of Health (NIH)) to support human studies in cocaine addiction and has been licensed to Indivior. Discovery programs include mGluR4PAM, mGluR7NAM, TrkBPAM and mGluR3NAM & PAM.
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