Geneva, Switzerland, 2 September 2011 – Addex Pharmaceuticals (SIX:ADXN), a leading biopharmaceutical company pioneering allosteric modulation-based drug discovery and development, announced today that it will regain all rights to its metabotropic glutamate receptor 4 (mGluR4) positive allosteric modulator (PAM) program from Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, due to further pipeline prioritization.
“We continue to strongly believe that mGluR4 is a highly attractive target for treating Parkinson’s and other serious diseases,” said Bharatt Chowrira, CEO of Addex. “We recognize the substantial challenges for the pharmaceutical industry today and we thank our partner for this collaboration and the significant advances we made together in targeting this important receptor. We remain committed to pursuing mGluR4 PAM for Parkinson’s and other diseases.”
Under the agreement, Addex will regain rights to intellectual property and know-how and can pursue the program independently.
Addex Pharmaceuticals (www.addexpharma.com) discovers and develops an emerging class of small molecule drugs, called allosteric modulators, which have the potential to be more specific and confer significant therapeutic advantages over conventional “orthosteric” small molecule or biological drugs. The company uses its proprietary discovery platform to address receptors and other proteins that are recognized as attractive targets for modulation of important diseases with unmet medical needs. The Company’s two lead products are being investigated in Phase IIa clinical testing: dipraglurant (ADX48621, an mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator or NAM) is being developed by Addex to treat Parkinson’s disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia (PD-LID); and, ADX71149 (mGluR2 positive allosteric modulator or PAM) is being developed by our partner Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to treat schizophrenia. Addex also is advancing several preclinical programs including: mGluR2 NAM for treating Alzheimer’s disease and depression; mGluR4 PAM for Parkinson’s and other diseases; GLP1R PAM for type 2 diabetes; FSHR NAM for endometriosis and benign prostatic hyperplasia; and GABABR PAM for chronic pain, urinary incontinence and other disorders. In addition, Addex has discovery programs to identify allosteric modulators of: receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) superfamily, including TrkB PAM for treating neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases); TNF receptor superfamily, including TNFR1 NAM for inflammation (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis); and, interleukin receptor family, such as IL1R1 NAM for gout and type II diabetes.