The nonprofit, Silicon Valley-based Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) has licensed its new mouse model for demyelinating diseases like multiple sclerosis to Biogen Idec ($BIIB) for the company's drug-discovery programs.
Under the agreement, Biogen Idec and the foundation will collaborate on research efforts to improve the licensed technologies to speed the discovery of myelin repair therapeutics and move them toward clinical development.
"Our collaborative efforts with MRF scientists will evaluate drug candidates' effectiveness in reversing myelin damage and hopefully advance R&D efforts for a new generation of MS therapeutics," said Ken Rhodes, vice president of neurology research at Biogen Idec, in a statement. Biogen Idec's MS pill Tecfidera just recently hit the market.
With diseases like MS, cerebral palsy and rare genetic disorders called leukodystrophies, the neuron-insulating myelin sheaths are damaged by immune attacks and cannot be replaced. This has been a major barrier to finding new therapies to stop or slow down the destruction caused by these diseases. No approved therapies are available that repair myelin damage from MS.
The Myelin Repair Foundation's principal investigator, Dr. Brian Popko, and Dr. Maria Traka, both of the University of Chicago, developed the new mouse model in collaboration with the foundation's principal investigator, Dr. Stephen Miller, and Dr. Joseph Podojil, both of Northwestern University.
Current popular models for MS imitate the disease's hyperactive inflammatory process, while MRF's model displays characteristics that represent the progressive form of MS--not yet available in any other mouse model, according to the researchers.
- here's the press release