Hanna Rosenmann, PhD, Department of Neurology, Hadassah University Hospital.
Background
Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington’s disease (HD), affect a vast patient population. These disorders are characterized by neuronal death and degeneration that lead to a progressive functional decline. Most of them are linked to the aging process.
Medical Need: The currents treatments available for neurodegenerative diseases are symptomatic and do not affect the underlying course of the disease. The causes and mechanisms of action are not fully understood which has led to a lack of drugs in the market which adequately address these diseases.
There is a large unmet medical need for drugs that delay AD and PD onset, or retard disease progression and restore normal function.
Market
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in older people. Providing medical care for the nearly 28 million AD patients, men and women, costs an estimated $156 billion per year worldwide. In the United States onethird ($50 billion) of this figure is spent on caring for 4 million AD patients. The "advanced economies" as a whole represent 38 percent of the world's AD patients, but they accounted for 92 percent of AD related direct health care costs. The United States and Canada spend about $16,000 in direct medical care per AD patient each year; $8,500 annually is spent on per-AD patient care in Europe.
The world market size of Parkinson’s disease drugs for the treatment of 4 million PD patients in industrial countries exceeds $2 billion per year.
The Innovation
Drugs already in use for other medical conditions, but not tested for their therapeutic potential against neurodegenerative diseases, were investigated based on pathobiological criteria. These compounds were analyzed in neuronal cell culture model under neurotoxic conditions (mimicking diseases like AD, PD, ALS and HD), and are being tested neurodegenerative-related animal models {AD, PD, ALS as well an inflammatory disease of the nervous system (experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, EAE). All drugs showed neuroprotective effects in neuronal cell cultures. For some drugs there is evidence for protective effects also in animals.
R&D Program
A group of drug candidates are studied for their neuroprotective potential:
- Antiarrhythmic drugs
- Phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors
- Cholesterol absorption inhibitor
None of these drugs is in use for treatment of patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases.
Milestones:
- Investigation of drug candidates under additional neurotoxic conditions in neuronal cell model, as well as in animal models (rapid, short-term models; chronic, delayed models).
- Investigation of drug candidate combinations (additive or synergistic effect).
- Proof-of-Concept of the therapeutic potential of the drug candidates as real neuroprotective agents.
- Understanding and model for mechanism of action.
Contact
Yuval Kupitz,
Business Development, Pharmaceuticals
Tel: +972-2-6778364
Email: yuvalk@hadasit.co.il
