Collaboration will evaluate compound’s effects on P2X receptors.
CHDI Foundation is teaming up with Lundbeck to aid preclinical development of the latter’s Huntington disease (HD) therapeutic candidate. In particular, the studies will assess the compound’s effects on P2X receptors implicated in the disease.
Lundbeck says the partnership fits in with its HD Research Initiative, launched in 2010, through which the firm is working with academic groups, research organizations, and other companies to develop new therapeutic approaches to HD. The Initiative includes a collaboration the University of Massachusetts Medical School to investigate RNAi-based therapies that suppress production of the mutant huningtin protein responsible for HD.
Lundbeck is focused on the development of treatments for a range of CNS disorders including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, epilepsy, Alzheimer disease, and Parkinson disease. The firm’s Xenazine® is the only FDA-approved drug indicated for reducing chorea associated with HD. Xenazine achieved sales of DKK 281 million (about $48.2 million) in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 35% over the same quarter in 2011.
