June 5, 2015 – Toronto, ON
Canadian biotech KalGene Pharmaceuticals has successfully secured $1.5 million in financing from Brain Canada, CQDM, and the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) Focus on Brain program to develop a new treatment for Alzheimer’s. This funding from CQDM will allow KalGene to test the conjugated therapeutic in preclinical models and if successful, in patients.
Getting therapeutics past the blood-brain barrier is no easy task. To enable its delivery into the brain, experts from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) will couple KAL-ABP, the therapeutic molecule, to carrier molecules that can shuttle it past the barrier. The molecule, called Amyloid-binding peptide (KAL-ABP), was developed by NRC and licensed to KalGene earlier this year.
To assist with the evaluation of the therapy, the Montreal Neurological Institute is providing best-in-class human imaging, while the Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization (CIMTEC) is developing an algorithm to automatically quantify amyloid-beta, the suspected cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
Media Relations Team
National Research Council of Canada
1-855-282-1637 (toll-free, 24/7, in Canada only)
1-613-991-1431 (elsewhere in North America)
media@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Twitter: @nrc_cnrc
T. Nathan Yoganathan
President and Chief scientific office
KalGene Pharmaceuticals
1-613-770-2638
nathan@kalgene.com
Anita Kar
Communications Officer
Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University
T: 514 398-3376
M: 514 295-3870
anita.kar@mcgill.ca
Twitter: @TheNeuro_MNI
Darlene Pratt
Director of Marketing Communications
CIMTEC
1-519-858-5013 ext. 25324
darlene.pratt@cimtec-canada.ca
