Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.Ireland-based biotechnology firm Prothena has initiated dosing patients in a Phase I clinical trial of its therapeutic monoclonal antibody candidate targeting α-synuclein PRX002, to treat Parkinson's disease (PD).
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Additionally, the company has earned a $15m milestone payment from Roche related to the initiation of the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single ascending dose trial.
The trial is designed to evaluate PRX002 in healthy subjects for safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and immunogenicity.
Prothena president and chief executive officer Dale Schenk said, "Together with Roche, we look forward to advancing this potential disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson’s disease and other related synucleinopathies through clinical development."
In December 2013, Prothena and Roche have collaborated for the development and commercialization of new antibodies that target a-synuclein, including PRX002.
Along with the current milestone payment, so far the company has achieved a total of $45m through its worldwide PRX002 collaboration with Roche.
The company said that PRX002 is expected to slow or reduce the progressive neurodegeneration associated with synuclein misfolding and/or the cell-to-cell transmission of the pathogenic forms of synuclein.