Startup Neuraly Raises $36M to Bring Potential Disease-Modifying Treatments to Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

“Currently, there aren’t any treatments that reverse, stop, or even slow neurodegeneration in diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The treatments that do exist – all symptomatic – provide only temporary improvement in motor and cognitive function, but even these become less effective over time,” said Dr. Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Neuraly. “We believe that the science supports NLY01 as a potential disease-modifying therapy capable of slowing the progression of disease.”

Dr. Roschke, Chief Scientific Officer of Neuraly added, “We expect NLY01 to be a pioneering treatment for Parkinson’s with low development risks as we have seen unprecedented efficacy in pre-clinical models and well-characterized safety profiles in a similar class of molecules. We look forward to initiating NLY01 into clinical trials later this year.”

Neuraly, a startup biotech company, was formed in 2016 following foundational research by world class neuroscientists led by Ted Dawson, M.D., Ph.D., Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Director of the Institute for Cell Engineering at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Following the acquisition of exclusive licenses to patents covering the composition of matter and methods of use, research supporting the development of NLY01 was recently published in Nature Medicine¹. These data demonstrated the critical role of the glial compartment of the neural tissue in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Activated microglial cells cause direct toxic effects on neuronal cells in the affected areas and induce differentiation of astroglia into neurotoxic A1 astrocytes further exacerbating neurotoxic effects of glial activation. In clinically relevant animal models, NLY01 was found to prevent neuronal cell death by inhibition of microglial activation and formation of A1 neurotoxic astroglial cells. As a result, treatment with NLY01 slowed down disease progression, improved motor and cognitive functions, and extended the lifespan in mice with Parkinson’s disease.

About NLY01
NLY01 is a proprietary long-acting analogue of Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists, a class of drugs with a well-known safety profile as illustrated by already approved treatments of Type 2 diabetes. NLY01 is being developed as a disease-modifying agent for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease with a Phase 1 clinical trial expected to be initiated in 2018.

About Neuraly
Neuraly, a biotech company founded on technology created at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is focused on the development of neuroprotective agents for neurologic disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. In addition to NLY01, Neuraly’s growing pipeline includes two candidates in early development targeting complementary mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases.

¹ Yun, S.P., et. al. “Block of A1 astrocyte conversion by microglia is neuroprotective in models of Parkinson’s disease.” Nat Med. 2018 Jun 11. doi: 10.1038/s41591-018-0051-5

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