MPI Research and Edge Therapeutics Partner to Advance Development of Life-Saving Therapies After Brain Hemorrhage
MATTAWAN, MI and NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ, Apr 03, 2012 -- MPI Research, the largest single-site preclinical contract research organization worldwide, and Edge Therapeutics, Inc., a hospital-focused biopharmaceutical company, announced today that they will collaborate on preclinical and clinical testing of Edge's lead product candidates, NimoGel(TM), NimoVent(TM) and EG-1964. The companies will combine their skills and expertise with the goal of initiating clinical trials of Edge's portfolio of therapies that use novel implantable technology to deliver proven drugs directly to the site of brain injury.
Paul Oskar, MBA, Vice President and General Manager of Drug Safety and Preclinical Sciences at MPI Research, noesearch and Edge have the expertise and capabilities needed to accelerate the preclinical and clinical programs for Edge's promising and potentially life-saving hospital-based therapies."
The collaboration creates a preferred partnership relationship in which MPI Research will act as Edge's primary service provider for pharmacologic, analytical, and safety in preclinical testing, and will also provide analytical services for clinical testing. This collaboration will allow Edge to gain multiple cost efficiencies while still retaining asset ownership and ownership of its strategic decision-making.
"Partnering with MPI Research allows Edge to access additional expertise and capabilities on a larger scale, helping to advance our lead hospital products into clinical trials," said R. Loch Macdonald, MD, PhD, Edge Chief Scientific Officer and neurosurgeon. "We look forward to a strong collaboration focused on the shared goal of saving the lives of brain-injured patients."
About MPI Research
MPI Research, with global headquarters in Mattawan, Michigan, is one of the world's leading providers of ctes, "We are impressed by Edge's world-class science in brain hemorrhage and drug delivery. Together, MPI Romprehensive preclinical and early clinical research for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In addition to a wide array of drug safety evaluation services, MPI Research Discovery Sciences Center offers experimental therapeutics (in vivo, molecular and cell-based assays), experimental surgery, molecular imaging, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and immunology. The company also offers medical device evaluation, bioanalytical and analytical testing, and additional related services. Learn more about the company's commitment to be the best at www.mpiresearch.com .
About Edge Therapeutics
Edge Therapeutics uses a novel, site-specific and sustained release-microparticle technology platform to deliver drugs to the brain and treat acute, and fatal or debilitating neurological conditions that currently have no effective therapies. Edge works with some of the world's foremost scientists from leading academic research centers to develop proprietary and novel formulations of known active drugs for direct therapeutic delivery to the site of injury in the brain.
The company's proprietary bio-absorbable microparticle formulations release drugs locally and consistently at therapeutic concentrations in the brain, which maximizes therapeutic activity while avoiding treatment-limiting systemic side effects seen with oral and intravenous delivery. This technology platform is the basis of Edge's pipeline of drugs in therapeutic areas such as complications from spontaneous brain hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury and brain surgery. The lead products, NimoGel(TM) and NimoVent(TM), are microparticle formulations of the calcium channel blocker nimodipine. These drugs are being developed to prevent delayed complications after subarachnoid hemorrhage, (where today oral- or i.v.-administered nimodipine is employed but in suboptimal concentrations due to the generation of systemic side effects). Phase 2 studies for both NimoGel and NimoVent are planned for 2012 and early 2013. For more information on Edge Therapeutics, Inc., please visit www.edgetherapeutics.com