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Düsseldorf, 01.10.2024 – Priavoid GmbH is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from the Alzheimer’s Association and the Rainwater Charitable Foundation for the preclinical development of its tau program.
Tau is a protein that, alongside amyloid beta, plays a central role in Alzheimer’s disease. In Alzheimer’s disease, in addition to the formation of neurotoxic amyloid beta aggregation, abnormal changes and aggregation of tau proteins also occur. These altered tau proteins form so-called neurofibrillary tangles (“protein bundles”), which disrupt the function of the nerve cells and ultimately lead to cell death. These deposits are a characteristic feature of Alzheimer’s disease and contribute significantly to the progression of the disease and the loss of cognitive functions.
Priavoid has a globally unique concept for the targeted disruption of protein aggregates into their native subcomponents, the monomers. While the compound PRI-002, which enables the disruption of amyloid-beta aggregates, is currently being tested for safety and efficacy in the Phase II Primus-AD study, the company is also developing compounds that target tau aggregates. This development is now being supported by the Alzheimer’s Association and the Rainwater Charitable Foundation as part of the Tau Pipeline Enabling Program (T-PEP).
“We have recently seen significant progress in the field of amyloid beta-targeting therapies. In our view, the disruption of tau aggregates is a second, important building block on the way to effective therapies against Alzheimer’s disease,” says Philipp Bürling, CEO of Priavoid. Dr. Antje Willuweit, Director Preclinical Development at Priavoid, adds: “The Tau Pipeline Enabling Program specifically supports our preclinical activities for the further development of substances that destroy tau aggregates within nerve cells and prevent their toxic effects. We are very pleased to receive this funding.”
The funding will be used to intensify preclinical studies and prepare the most promising drug candidates for clinical trials.
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About the Alzheimer’s Association®:
The Alzheimer’s Association is a worldwide voluntary health organization dedicated to Alzheimer’s care, support and research. The Association’s mission is to lead the way to end Alzheimer’s and all other dementia — by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support. The Association’s vision is a world without Alzheimer’s and all other dementia®. Visit alz.org or call 800.272.3900.
About the Rainwater Charitable Foundation:
The Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF) was created in the early 1990s by renowned private equity investor and philanthropist Richard E. Rainwater. When Richard was diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease and primary tauopathy called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), the RCF expanded its mission to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and treatments for tau-related neurodegenerative disorders. The RCF Medical Research Team supports this focus by managing the Tau Consortium, the Rainwater Prize Program and the Tauopathy Challenge Workshop. With over $140 million invested in medical research to date, the RCF has helped to advance eight treatments into human trials. Currently the RCF supports a range of programs, including a focus on family economic security, medical research and other worthy causes. For more information, please visit rainwatercharitablefoundation.org.
About the Tau Pipeline Enabling Program (T-PEP):
The T-PEP grant program seeks to accelerate the discovery of potential new therapies for tauopathies. The intent of this program is to enrich the pipeline for therapy development by facilitating the translation of all derived ideas that have therapeutic relevance into practical application. In short, it bridges the gap between innovative but resource-constrained researchers and the larger pharmaceutical companies that are looking for drug candidates to be taken into human trials. The Tau Pipeline Enabling Program (T-PEP) is jointly funded by the Alzheimer’s Association and the Rainwater Charitable Foundation.
About Priavoid GmbH:
Priavoid GmbH is a spin-off of Research Center Jülich and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Düsseldorf. It develops novel all-d-peptide drug candidates for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or tauopathies. The most advanced of these is PRI-002 for Alzheimer’s disease. All drug candidates are designed to have an anti-prionic mechanism of action to dissolve neurotoxic protein aggregates. The company is privately funded, including by Qiagen co-founder Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Detlev Riesner. In addition, the development is significantly supported by the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovations, which is funding the PRIMUS-AD phase II study for the drug candidate PRI-002.
