Barcelona neuroscience R&D company Accure Therapeutics has received two grants totalling €1.46 million for two separate development programs on its drug candidate ACT-02.
ACT-02 is a novel asset with disease-modifying potential, inhibiting Prolyl Endopeptidase (PREP), a promising but previously overlooked target in Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Parkinson’s is the second most common and fastest growing neurodegenerative disease, with more than ten million people worldwide living with the condition; nearly one million in the US, a number expected to rise to 1.2 million by 2030.
The ACT-02 program is at an advanced preclinical stage, supported by comprehensive positive efficacy data in Parkinson’s in vivo models and a GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) toxicology and safety pharmacology data set.
A Michael J. Fox Foundation grant to fund the phase I IND study in 2026
Accure Therapeutics received a €1.02 million grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to fund the project titled ‘ACT-02 as a disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson’s (MJFF-025939)’. This project is a collaboration between the Institute of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy at Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, led by Prof. Dr Franziska Richter Assencio, and Accure Therapeutics.
Funding will be used to finalise the preclinical activities required for completing investigational new drug (IND) studies, with a view to filing an application for a phase I IND study in 2026.
According to Prof Dr Franziska Richter Assencio:
“Our team is extremely keen to further study ACT-02, which has already demonstrated neuroprotective effects in dopaminergic neurons, reduction of α-synuclein aggregation and neuroinflammation, while improving mitochondrial functioning and enhancing the motor and cognitive performance in Thy1-aSyn mice (line 61) experiments,”
An FNR grant to support a public-private partnership on Parkinson’s disease
The FNR
A grant of €0.48 million — including both monetary and in-kind support — has been awarded to the Transcend-PD project, titled: “Pharmacological targeting of Prolyl Endopeptidase in human induced Pluripotent Stem cell-derived neurons for the development of precision medicine therapeutic strategies in Parkinson’s disease.”
This project is a collaboration between the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) Translational Neuroscience group and Accure Therapeutics.
It aims to assess the efficacy of ACT-02 in highly translational patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of PD, to enhance patient selection and stratification for future precision medicine strategies.
"These two grants are significant steps forward for us and our academic partners in the development of our first-in-class drug candidate, ACT-02, for Parkinson’s disease,” said Laurent Nguyen, co-founder and CEO at Accure Therapeutics.
"We aim with ACT-02 to develop a game changer drug to treat patients suffering from Parkinson's Disease."
Lead image: Freepik.
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