5th Aug 2015 08:10
LONDON (Alliance News) - PureTech Health PLC Wednesday said its operating company Karuna Pharmaceuticals has won an award from the Wellcome Trust for up to USD3.8 million, in order to develop KarXT for the treatment of schizophrenia.
PureTech said it is also investing a further USD1.5 million in Karuna for KarXT, and may pay up to an additional USD17.5 million pending the results of the next clinical trial.
KarXT selectively targets the muscarinic system and contains xanomeline, which has demonstrated efficacy in reducing psychosis and improving cognition in schizophrenia, and also contains trospium chloride which could potentially inhibit the negative side effects of xanomeline by improving its safety profile.
Karuna plans to conduct a safety proof of concept study in 2016 to demonstrate that trospium chloride can improve xanomeline's tolerability profile, followed by a Phase II efficacy study of KarXT.
"The muscarinic system has shown enormous promise as a therapeutic target for the treatment of schizophrenia, but development efforts have been limited by tolerability concerns," Karuna Chief Clinical Adviser Alan Brier said. "The KarXT program has the potential to fulfill the long-held promise of therapeutics targeting muscarinic receptors," he added.
"We are honoured by the support of the Wellcome Trust and the recognition of the potential of Karuna's KarXT program as a potentially ground breaking new approach for treating schizophrenia. This award, recognising the important work of Karuna, provides further external validation of our approach and the potential to have an impact on patients' lives," PureTech Chief Executive Daphne Zohar said in a statement.
Shares in PureTech were trading up 4.2% at 148.95 pence Wednesday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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