MedGenesis Announces GDNF Licenses and Collaboration with Amgen and Biovail
On January 12, 2010, MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc. announced that it had entered into a collaboration with Biovail Corp. on developing glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) protein to treat Parkinson's disease. Concurrently, MGT and BLS licensed from Amgen Inc. the rights to GDNF in CNS and non-CNS indications.
MedGenesis and Biovail will initially focus on the development of GDNF for Parkinson's disease, a progressive and debilitating neurological disease affecting close to 5 million patients worldwide.
GDNF is a naturally-occurring growth factor capable of protecting and promoting the survival of the dopamine producing nerve cells that are attacked in Parkinson's.
I acted for MGT in respect of the Biovail collaboration and the Amgen licenses, as well as certain other strategic relationships.
What the press releases for any life sciences collaboration don't explain, and what is so easy to lose sight of in the course of any negotiation, is the human element of why we do what we do.
GDNF has a history (see below). It has worked for some people in the past, but failed in clinical trials. If you watch the two short videos below, you can't help but be moved by seeing Parkinson's patients treated with GDNF put away their canes and walk.
It takes so many people for a new treatment to succeed. My role in this things is to be there at the birth of the collaboration - I don't get to see how the baby grows up. But I am fervently hoping this one develops well.
Congratulations to Amgen for putting GDNF back out there. And godspeed to MGT and BLS in making GDNF a success.
MedGenesis and Biovail will initially focus on the development of GDNF for Parkinson's disease, a progressive and debilitating neurological disease affecting close to 5 million patients worldwide.
GDNF is a naturally-occurring growth factor capable of protecting and promoting the survival of the dopamine producing nerve cells that are attacked in Parkinson's.
I acted for MGT in respect of the Biovail collaboration and the Amgen licenses, as well as certain other strategic relationships.
What the press releases for any life sciences collaboration don't explain, and what is so easy to lose sight of in the course of any negotiation, is the human element of why we do what we do.
GDNF has a history (see below). It has worked for some people in the past, but failed in clinical trials. If you watch the two short videos below, you can't help but be moved by seeing Parkinson's patients treated with GDNF put away their canes and walk.
It takes so many people for a new treatment to succeed. My role in this things is to be there at the birth of the collaboration - I don't get to see how the baby grows up. But I am fervently hoping this one develops well.
Congratulations to Amgen for putting GDNF back out there. And godspeed to MGT and BLS in making GDNF a success.
7 Comments:
Welcome abord the GDNF adventure tour; many thanks for posting the videos about Parkinson's people and the need for GDNF. Your humane spirit comes through clearly, and believe me, if there is something People With Parkinsons need, it is to be treated like human beings. It would have been good to have you around when the Amgen clinical trials collapsed some years ago. I can barely pronounce the word "Amgen" without feeling angry. Have they changed over the years? I sure hope so. Be sure to read "Monkeys in the Middle" by Nick Nelson, and there has been a lot of commentary at Neuro Talk over the years:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=46851&highlight=monkeys
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After the whole Amgen fiasco during clinical trials many seasoned people with Parkinson's thought that the human element was no longer important, that the bottom line was all about profit.
As a newly diagnosed person with Parkinson's and mother to a young son, I can only hope that this time the human element is equal in import to all else in reviving the development of GDNF treatments.
I also simply want to say "thank you".
I'm tentatively positive about this, but Amgen has severely damaged their credibility with many in the Parkinson's patient community.
Is this the same GDNF that was pursued in the New York and Kentucky court cases?
How is it going to be delivered, specifically?
We want to be glad, but have lost faith. Maybe that can change. Our lives depend on it.
Thank you Mr. Hatton for your comments on GDNF. Many People with Parkinson’s and researchers believe GDNF is our best hope for the future. We are overjoyed that after 5 long years the protein has finally been released by Amgen and MedGenesis will now restart the research and hopefully bring it into clinical use. We feel it is in good hands now. I have personally met GDNF trial participants. Even after their treatments had been halted for a year or more, some had improved so much, one couldn’t tell they had PD. Others were able to return to nearly normal lives and work. But eventually without the GDNF infusions they all returned to their pre-treatment, profoundly disabled state. It is a tragedy that this treatment that helped so many of the trial participants was denied to them. I believe it has also slowed research progress for all of us battling PD. Investigative Journalist Nick Nelson has chronicled the whole disturbing story in his book “Monkies in the Middle: How One Drug Company Kept a Parkinsons Disease Breakthrough Out of Reach”
But now we must look forward.
Thank you again – you seem to have a good understanding of the importance of GDNF for people with Parkinson’s and the need to move treatments through the drug development pipeline as quickly and safely as possible.
Linda Herman (dx with PD for 15 years)
Co-Author “When Parkinson’s Strikes Early”
The opportunities lost while GDNF sat on the shelf are incalculable. It is great news that this promising line of research is being resurrected. People with PD, along with their friends, families, and colleagues, are watching, waiting, and hoping. To the new GDNF team: thanks, godspeed -- and please don't let us down.
It certainly is good to see renewed interest in GDNF. I, too, have personally met patients who improved from its use and have spoken with researchers involved in the defunct study. Mr. Hatton, I hope you can help the Parkinson's community - we're behind you all the way.
There is a new discussion over at Neurotalk about MedGenesis and GDNF - your creation, in a sense! It would be great if anyone - yourself or someone at MedGenesis - could send off some solid bits of info from time to time, to all us PWP over here at Neurotalk. Nobody tells us straight on, hardly ever. And what was thing about the exec. guy taking no salary for 3 years. Are they kidding me? Did time and space invert and run backwards or something? Is that for real?geders
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