Neuren to develop drugs to repair brain and spinal cord damage

Neuren Pharmaceuticals, based in Aukland, New Zealand, has signed an agreement to develop new drugs to repair brain and spinal cord damage using a NZ$635,000 grant from the Australia New Zealand Biotechnology Partnership Fund, plus NZ$ 635,000 from Neuren and NZ$1.27m from Australian company Metabolic Pharmaceuticals.

The funds will be used in the areas of drug development, defining the target disease, and selecting the therapeutic method. Metabolic's area of expertise is the development of small molecules into usable drugs.

Neuren's chief scientific officer, Professor Peter Gluchman, said the company had discovered the genetic family for novel small molecules, the neuro-regenerative peptides that produce brain chemicals used to regulate development and possibly to repair. 'This is a new class of drug, and we are aware of nothing else like it,' he said.

Treatments under examination include spinal injury, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, brain trauma and stroke damage, and peripheral neuropathy. Compounds under development can regenerate damaged brain cells, turn residual stem cells into neurons and build connections between cells.