A little more than two years after announcing a $12.4 million round to finance early-stage efforts on its experimental therapy for Alzheimer's, Cambridge, MA-based NeuroPhage says it has landed $6.4 million from backers to work on pre-IND studies of the lead drug, NPT002. Mérieux Développement led the latest infusion of cash along with other backers, including Shire ($SHPGY). The money will also work on other new therapies for conditions such as Parkinson's. "We are encouraged by NeuroPhage's progress in further elucidating the mechanism of action of NPT002 and advancing the program toward clinical trials, as well as its discovery of new antibody-like fusion proteins with the potential to broadly address neurodegenerative disease markets with enormous unmet need," said Dr. Valérie Calenda, a partner at Mérieux Développement. "We believe the company's transformative approach to addressing protein misfolding could make a major contribution to achieving greatly improved treatments for these disabling conditions that affect millions of people worldwide." Release