7 /PRNewswire/ -- Guilford Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: GLFD - news) announced today that its partner, Amgen Inc. (Nasdaq: AMGN - news), has commenced a Phase II clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of neuroimmunophilin ligands in the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease. Neuroimmunophilin ligands are orally-active drugs, which have been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier and may be useful for treating a variety of neurodegenerative disorders.
``We are extremely pleased with the progress Amgen has made in the clinical development of our neuroimmunophilin ligands,'' commented Dr. Craig R. Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer. ``Neuroimmunophilin ligands represent a potentially exciting new development in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, and the initiation of a major Phase II trial for Parkinson's disease is an important milestone for both companies.''
The Phase II clinical trial is a randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of neuroimmunophilins in the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease. Previous clinical studies in healthy volunteers demonstrated that neuroimmunophilins appeared to be safe and well tolerated at the doses and durations of administration evaluated.
Guilford also announced today the issuance of a patent that relates to this technology. The issued patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,080,753, was granted to Johns Hopkins University and is licensed to Guilford. The patent covers ``stimulating growth of damaged neurons in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease or physical damage to the spinal cord'' with a compound ``having an affinity for FKBP''.
``Guilford is committed to pursuing strong patent protection for its discoveries,'' commented Dr. Smith. ``Combined with the previous patents we've obtained in this field, we believe the new patent will add to our strong intellectual property position.'' |
