Relief Therapeutics To Develop New Neuropathy Treatment

Today's post from pharmaceutical-technology.com (see link below) looks at the news that pharma company, Merck has agreed to allow Relief Therapeutics to develop and commercialise a new drug to combat neuropathy. However, in contrast to others, this drug will not combat the pain and discomfort of neuropathy alone but is aimed at regenerating and stimulating nerve health and growth. The drug is called atexakin alfa and it's a human recombinant version of interleukin-6. Basically, that means that it's a bio-active protein that enables cell culture in studies to be carried out with as little contamination as possible. it's essentially a sort of stem cell therapy. It has been found that atexakin alfa induces a regrowth of nerve cells and as such has obvious potential where nerve damage occurs. This may all seem gobbledegook to you but it's evidence of progress in tackling nerve damage itself and not just the effects of nerve damage, which is what most treatments currently do. That's research moving in a different direction and suggests that our neuropathic damage may be able to be repaired in the future.

Relief gets rights from Merck to develop atexakin alfa for peripheral neuropathies treatment
8 September 2015

Swiss start-up company Relief Therapeutics has entered an in-licensing agreement from Merck Serono to secure exclusive rights to develop and commercialise atexakin alfa, a human recombinant version of interleukin-6.

In preclinical studies, atexakin alfa has been shown to induce the re-growth of nerves and re-establish normal nerve conduction and sensory perception in various relevant animal models of neuropathies.

Initially discovered at the Weizmann institute (IL), atexakin alfa was first tested as a potential treatment for thrombocytopenia in chemotherapy-treated cancer patients, allowing the delineation of its safety and pharmacodynamic profiles.
"This agreement constitutes a great opportunity to develop the first disease modifying treatment that has the potential to significantly reduce the burden of neuropathies to patients, care givers and society."

As part of the deal, Relief Therapeutics will be responsible for development of atexakin alfa to treat neuropathies.

Based on positive preclinical, toxicological and clinical data, Relief will engage in clinical development to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of atexakin alfa in diabetic patients suffering from neuropathy.

The company noted that atexakin alfa has the potential of relieving pain, as well as non-pain symptoms associated with neuropathies by restoring normal innervation in the periphery.

Relief Therapeutics co-founder Dr Gael Hédou said: "This agreement constitutes a great opportunity to develop the first disease modifying treatment that has the potential to significantly reduce the burden of neuropathies to patients, care givers and society."

Peripheral neuropathies are a group of conditions characterised by degeneration of peripheral motor, sensory, or autonomic nerves, which causes a wide variety of symptoms and signs ranging from intractable pain, numbness and tingling to potentially impairment of strength, balance and coordination.

Neuropathies develop as a result of toxic, inflammatory, infectious, genetic, neoplastic, and metabolic diseases.

http://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/newsrelief-rights-merck-develop-atexakin-alfa-peripheral-neuropathies-treatment-4665940