Herantis gets funds for its Parkinson’s disease study

The research and innovation program of the European Union, Horizon 2020, has awarded a grant of approximately €6.0 million for Herantis Pharma Plc’s Phase 1-2 clinical study with Herantis’ drug candidate CDNF for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

With the grant Herantis expects its financial position to remain positive until the end of 2018, which is moved from the end of 2017. The short name of the Horizon 2020 project is TreatER.

The TreatER project will be executed by a consortium of 11 members. Herantis appears as the formal sponsor of the clinical study and the owner of CNDF patents. The University of Helsinki where CDNF was discovered is also a part of the consortium. It also includes three university hospitals responsible for patient treatments from Sweden and Finland. There are another two pharmaceutical companies focused on Parkinson’s Disease. Swedish Karolinska Institutet is there as a leading expert in advanced PET imaging in Parkinson’s. The University of Oxford and Renishaw plc in the United Kingdom, and the European Parkinson’s Disease Association also take part in TreatER.

“This is a great achievement for our consortium and a significant reward for years of hard work by the Herantis team,” said Pekka Simula, CEO of Herantis. “Horizon 2020 grants are very competitive and this award required a strong European consortium, leading science, and highest potential to advance clinical practice. Collaboration of the TreatER partners has already been unique toward a common goal: Breakthrough in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.”

“Starting clinical studies is a great moment for a scientist. I am very optimistic about our prospects because CDNF has been efficacious in a number of disease models of Parkinson’s disease,” says professor Mart Saarma of the University of Helsinki. Professor Saarma’s scientific research lead to the discovery of CDNF and his research group continues to uncover its further potential in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

The EU grant enables extending the clinical study’s CDNF treatment period to 12 months under two separate clinical protocols, and including advanced endpoints such as actigraphy and innovative PET imaging, which are expected to increase the impact of the study. The grant also provides funding for important supportive scientific research at the University of Helsinki and the University of Oxford. Herantis retains full commercial rights to CDNF.

About Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is a slowly progressing neurodegenerative disease caused by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrains. Common first motor symptoms of the disease include tremors, rigidity and slowness of movement. While the motor symptoms can be treated with medication the disease progression cannot be prevented, and the benefits of medication may be lost with disease progression or side effects can become unmanageable. In addition, Parkinson’s disease may cause non-motor symptoms such as sleep problems, depression, and anxiety, which are not alleviated by current Parkinson’s drugs. Estimated 7 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s disease.