SAN DIEGO, Jan. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — AndroScience Corp.
(ASC), based in San Diego, California, announced receiving a $3.8
Million, 3-year milestone-driven, cooperative translational
research grant from the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH). Through a joint research effort with the Neurogenetics
Branch of the NINDS, ASC will use the funding to pursue development
of an oral drug treatment for spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy
(SBMA) or Kennedy’s Disease, a rare hereditary neurodegenerative
disease, which currently has no approved drug available to
patients. Key pathological features of SBMA include
progressive motor neuropathy and androgen insensitivity syndrome
caused by a distinctive mutation within the androgen receptor (AR)
gene. ASC has developed a unique platform of therapeutic
small molecule drugs, which selectively and potently enhance
degradation of the AR protein, termed AR degradation enhancers (ARD
enhancers).
“Given encouraging pre-clinical results and the clear need for a
new therapeutic option for SBMA patients, ASC is excited to
continue advancing preclinical development of this promising novel
drug candidate,” said ASC President Charles Shih, Ph.D. “The
funding provided by the NINDS/NIH will significantly propel our
efforts in validating ARD enhancers as a disease-modifying
therapeutic intervention against such a rare and devastating
neurodegenerative illness.”
This $3.8 Million cooperative translational research grant will
leverage expertise from the NINDS and draw upon ASC’s innovative
approach to targeting the mutant androgen receptor (AR). The
goals of the grant will be to first validate an orally administered
ARD enhancer drug is efficacious in the SBMA transgenic animal
model, and further, to complete preclinical toxicology, safety
pharmacology, and ADME studies necessary in supporting of an IND
filing to commence human clinical
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