--Novel Long-Acting Clinical Stage Compound Has Demonstrated Good Safety and Signs of Activity in Preclinical and Early Clinical Studies; May Have Potential in Alzheimer's Disease and Other CNS Indications--
--TLS Will Use Its Indication Finder™ and Protocol Builder™ Crowdsourcing Tools to Identify Priority Indications and Design Clinical Protocols for Further Development--
NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Transparency Life Sciences, LLC (TLS), a drug development company pioneering the use of digital technologies and crowdsourcing to decrease the cost and improve the quality of clinical trials, today announced that it has concluded an agreement with SeneXta Therapeutics for an exclusive option to develop and commercialize SeneXta's selective, long-acting clinical-stage cholinesterase inhibitor. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
The compound is s a novel inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Unlike currently available AChE inhibitors, it produces long-acting AChE inhibition and acts preferentially in the brain, rather than in the peripheral nervous system. The compound's long-acting nature also contributes to its positive therapeutic index, enabling the use of very small doses to produce a therapeutic effect. The compound's improved side effect profile has been observed in both preclinical and early clinical studies, with fewer of the gastrointestinal and other side effects that can limit the therapeutic utility of conventional AChE inhibitors.
A number of AChE inhibitors are approved for the treatment of early Alzheimer's disease (AD), and SeneXta had been assessing the compound as a potential treatment for AD. It demonstrated good safety in early studies in Alzheimer's patients and encouraging signs of activity in preclinical models of dementia. AChE inhibition may also have therapeutic benefits for patients with a range of conditions such as glaucoma, cognitive impairment associated with Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, autism and a number of rare CNS diseases.
TLS co-founder and CEO, Tomasz Sablinski, MD, PhD, commented, "This option agreement for our first novel compound represents a significant milestone for the company. This compound is perfectly suited to benefit from our 21st century approach to drug development. It is of potential therapeutic relevance in a broad range of diseases, so our proprietary web-based crowdsourcing tools, including our Indication FinderTM and Protocol FinderTM platforms, should be of great value in helping us to identify priority indications and develop the best possible clinical protocols to assess clinical significance. Many of the potential indications are also expected to work well with our pioneering approach to clinical trial measurement, which replaces most patient site visits with digital monitoring methods."
Dr. Lawrence Steinman, Chair of the TLS Scientific Advisory Board and the George A. Zimmermann Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine noted, "This selective, long-acting AChE inhibitor is especially intriguing because the cholinesterase pathway is implicated in so many disease states. A driving force behind our decision to establish TLS was our conviction that a transformed clinical trial process based on open innovation and digital monitoring technologies would enable potentially valuable stalled compounds to be advanced into later-stage development. I look forward to participating with my medical and researcher colleagues, along with patients and other interested individuals, in the clinical selection and design process for this compound."
"We are excited to sign this agreement with TLS, whose innovative approach is designed to unlock the potential value in promising drug assets that have been stalled in development. This compound holds great potential in treating patients with several severe diseases and neurodegenerative disorders," said Enrico Braglia, CEO and founder of SeneXta.
TLS intends to assess a number of indications for further development of the SeneXta compound, and will also analyze its promising preclinical data to explore subsets of Alzheimer's patients in whom the compound might potentially demonstrate a clear benefit.
