July 13, 2016
SAN DIEGO
Plex Pharmaceuticals (registered as CalAsia
Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), announced today that it has been awarded a grant of
$670,865 from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF)
through its Therapeutic Pipeline Program. Under this funding, Plex will employ
its proprietary fragment-based screening technology combined with
structure-based drug design to discover and develop brain-permeable drug
candidates targeting two promising PD disease modifying proteins, FK506 Binding
Protein 12 (FKBP12) and FKBP52, which accelerate and promote the aggregation of
alpha-synuclein, a hallmark of PD pathology.
"We are excited about this
opportunity. Being recognized by MJFF validates Plex's platform technology,
which accelerates the discovery of blood brain barrier-crossing CNS 'drug-like'
lead compounds," said Dr. G. Sridhar Prasad, PhD, Principal Investigator
of the program and founder and Chief Scientific Officer.
Dr. Allan Rubenstein, MD,
Chairman, added "this further emphasizes Plex's mission for advancing the
discovery and development of preclinical and clinical candidates as treatments
for both unmet and under-served medical needs including neurodegenerative
disorders." An estimated 7-10 million people are living with PD worldwide
and the currently available medications only treat symptoms and none either
reverse or halt the progression of the disease.
About
Plex Pharmaceuticals:
Plex pharmaceuticals is an early-stage biotechnology company, which is focusing
its drug discovery expertise on diseases caused by protein misfolding: ALS,
Parkinson's disease and cataracts. CalAsia Pharmaceuticals, the predecessor to
Plex Pharmaceuticals, was founded in 2009 and raised almost $3,000,000 in
non-dilutive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and The
Michael J. Fox Foundation to support its efforts in fragment-based screening
and structure-based drug design. Plex's ALS effort is built around the work of
Scientific Advisory Board member Dr. Arthur Horwich, Yale University School of
Medicine. Dr. Horwich was one of the co-discoverers of the protein chaperone
machinery, for which he received a Lasker Award. Plex pharmaceuticals
additionally has a development program for Dengue, West Nile and Zika antiviral
drugs, which has also received support from the NIH and has worked on a novel
brain-penetrant heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitor for glioblastoma.
Contact:
Dr. G. Sridhar Prasad
1-858-587-8800
Cell: 1-858-733-0858
SOURCE Plex
Pharmaceuticals
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/plex-pharmaceuticals-awarded-670865-grant-funding-from-the-michael-j-fox-foundation-for-parkinsons-research-300298184.html?
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