Lario Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company specialising in precision medicines for neurological disorders, has been awarded a USD $6m grant from the Micheal J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF).
The money will be used to fund the company’s preclinical profile, which is exploring the impacts of CaV2.3 inhibition as a therapeutic intervention for Parkinson’s disease.
There has been a wide range of studies linking calcium channels to the disease pathology of Parkinson’s, and preclinical trials have shown that CaV2.3 deletion can have a protective effect against Parkinson’s disease progression.
To conduct such research, Lario is partnering with Prof. Richard Wade-Martins and the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre (OPDC) to evaluate the efficacy of Lario’s compounds in stem cell models.
Professor of Neuroscience UCL and Chief Scientific Officer of Lario Therapeutics, Tom Otis said: “We are grateful to MJFF for their funding support for Lario’s efforts to test and develop a potential new therapy designed to prevent the loss of neurons that causes Parkinson’s disease. If our research is successful, this will represent an important new treatment option for patients.”
Co-Founder and CEO of Lario Therapeutics, Henning Steinhagen, added: “This significant funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation will aid the work out of our therapeutic pipeline and the work we have achieved so far in advancing research in the field. We would like to thank the MJFF team for their support. This grant will help drive our ambition to progress our Cav2.3 programme swiftly towards the clinic, to provide a new, effective treatment option for people with Parkinson’s disease.”