Eli Lilly and Medtronic are to join forces to develop a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease which uses a drug delivery system implanted in the brain.
The companies hope to create a therapeutic approach for the disease that combines Lilly's biologic, a modified form of glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), with Medtronic’s implantable drug infusion system technology.
“Our collaboration with Lilly is bringing together the expertise of both companies to develop a new approach to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease,” said Steve Oesterle, Senior Vice President of Medicine and Technology at Medtronic.
“One of the most significant challenges in delivering a biologic treatment for neurodegenerative diseases is crossing the blood brain barrier. We have extensive experience in targeted drug delivery and technology that allow delivery of therapeutic agents directly to the brain.”
Medtronic’s drug pump and catheter have been designed to enable precise delivery of the GDNF variant into a targeted area of the brain consistently over time. It is hoped that this combination will impact the neurodegeneration that leads to the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
“We believe we have biosynthetically engineered this GDNF variant to overcome technical hurdles of previous research in this area and are hopeful that early testing of our biologic with Medtronic's device will provide the necessary data to safely advance into human studies,” said Michael L. Hutton, Chief Scientific Officer of the Neurodegeneration team at Lilly.
“By collaborating with Medtronic from the earliest phase of research, we are maximising the potential for this therapy's efficient and effective development.”
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