Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals Receives $680,000 Grant from NINDS To Advance New Therapies for ALS

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals announced today that it will receive $680,000 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to advance novel drug compounds for treating patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals is developing innovative drugs designed to slow or reverse the progression of ALS. Currently there is no cure or effective treatment for slowing the progression of ALS, a lethal neurodegenerative disease that quickly stifles nerve cell function, leading to loss of muscle control throughout the body. ALS can progress rapidly; more than half of newly diagnosed patients will not survive beyond three years.

The NINDS grant was awarded to support Aquinnah's unique approach to treating ALS, which targets pathological protein complexes found in the brains of most ALS patients. The accumulation of these disease-linked protein complexes are believed to drive the progression of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. Aquinnah will use newly identified compounds to attack and break down the complexes, with the goal of swiftly moving a novel and effective class of ALS drugs into clinical development.

Glenn Larsen, Ph.D., President and CEO of Aquinnah said, "We are pleased to have received excellent reviews on our scientific program, leading NINDS to fund our proposal to develop innovative new therapies for the treatment of ALS.  Our mission is to revolutionize ALS treatment and change the clinical outcome of this devastating disease by developing drugs to slow or reverse the progression of ALS."

"We're very pleased to receive this critical funding from NINDS which will propel Aquinnah's science toward our goal of developing novel ALS therapies," said co-founder Ben Wolozin, M.D., Ph.D. "Our work is made urgent in knowing that our efforts could radically change outcomes for ALS patients within a matter of years."

ABOUT AQUINNAH PHARMACEUTICALS

Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals (www.aquinnahpharmaceuticals.com) is using newly discovered brain pathology to design innovative therapies to slow the progression of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. Aquinnah builds on the groundbreaking work of co-founder Benjamin Wolozin, M.D., Ph.D., who has led the discovery of disease-linked protein aggregation in neurologic diseases.

ABOUT NINDS

The NINDS (www.ninds.nih.gov) is the nation's leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

SOURCE Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals

Related Links

http://www.aquinnahpharma.com