Cognition Therapeutics Closes Series A Financing to Advance Drug Candidates for Alzeimer's Disease

July 15, 2009 – Cognition Therapeutics Inc., a Pittsburgh-based drug discovery company developing small molecule disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s, has closed on a $1.21M Series A financing. The round was led by Ogden CAP, LLC of New York City and includes M5Invest Partners of Villanova, PA, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, Innovation Works (Pittsburgh), and several individual investors. The round included both new investments and the conversion of existing convertible notes.
“This investment facilitates the advancement of our existing lead molecules towards a major milestone,” said Cognition Therapeutics President and CEO Hank Safferstein, Ph.D., J.D. “Our combination of novel, small molecule drug candidates and biologically-relevant screening methods is unique in the pharmaceutical industry. We’re pleased to have Ogden CAP and M5Invest join our other investors in supporting our pioneering approach to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease by targeting the proteins that cause the earliest stages of this disease”... [PDF] Cognition Therapeutics' Press Release -

Noscira : Nypta, an innovative approach for treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and PSP

3 November, 2009: The European Commission and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have granted Noscira, a biotechnology subsidiary of Grupo Zeltia (ZEL.MC), orphan drug status for Nypta® (NP-12) for treating Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a neurodegenerative disease...

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...Nypta® inhibits the GSK-3 enzyme; this is an innovative approach for treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and PSP. Nypta® is the only GSK-3 inhibitor under clinical development and the only compound capable of acting on all of the histopathological lesions associated with the disease.

From 2006 to 2008, Nypta® was administered to more than 150 healthy volunteers, both young and old, in three double-blind Phase I trials. The first Phase II trial for Alzheimer's was approved in the last quarter of 2008; 30 patients have already been treated, and the results are being processed... Noscira's Press Release -

ProteoTech : at the 9th International Conference for Alzheimer's...

March 9, 2009 - ProteoTech Inc. announced that both Dr. Alan D. Snow, Chairman, President & CSO, and Dr. Luke Esposito, Director of In Vitro Screening, will present at the 9th International Conference for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases, to be held in Prague, Czech Republic, March 11-15, 2009. On Sunday March 15, Dr. Alan D. Snow will give an oral presentation discussing promising results pertaining to ProteoTech’s current Phase 1A human clinical trial with the small molecule Exebryl-1® for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Snow’s talk is entitled: “Exebryl-1®: A Novel Small Molecule Currently in Human Clinical Trials as a Disease-Modifying Drug for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease.”... [PDF] ProteoTech's Press Release -

Nanotherapeutics Acquires Late Stage Clinical Program for Alzheimer's Treatment

December 16, 2009 - Nanotherapeutics, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has acquired in bankruptcy proceedings two late stage clinical programs: Ramoplanin from Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corporation and PRX-3140 from EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ramoplanin - an oral antibiotic for the treatment of Clostridium difficileassociated disease (CDAD) - is entering Phase 3 trials. PRX-3140 - an orally-bioavailable Alzheimer’s treatment - is in Phase 2 clinical studies. Nanotherapeutics also acquired the U.S. and foreign patent estates covering each clinical program... [PDF] Nanotherapeutics' Press Release -

Proteostasis Therapeutics: Paper in Cell Establishing Role of the Proteostasis Network in Alzheimer's Disease

December 15, 2009 - Proteostasis Therapeutics announced that modulating a key Proteostasis Network (PN) pathway may offer a novel approach to Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that was published in the journal Cell by its scientific founders Andrew Dillin, Ph.D., and Jeffery Kelly, Ph.D. The publication describes how regulation of an aggregase pathway reduced the neurodegenerative effects of beta amyloid aggregates that are a hallmark of the disease. Proteostasis has exclusively licensed the intellectual property for modulating this pathway from the Salk Institute and is integrating it into its proprietary technology platform directed to the discovery of a new class of therapeutics, Proteostasis Regulators (PR), small molecules designed to correct defects in the PN... Proteostasis Therapeutics' Press Release -