Industry | Biopharmaceuticals |
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Founded | 2011 |
Key people
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Mark A. Varney, Adrian Newman-Tancredi |
Neurolixis is a biopharmaceutical company focused on novel drugs for the treatment of human central nervous system diseases.
Neurolixis Inc. was founded in 2011 and is managed by two pharmaceutical industry professionals, Mark A. Varney, PhD (Chief Executive Officer) and Adrian Newman-Tancredi, PhD, DSc (Chief Scientific Officer). The company's therapeutic focus is on CNS disorders including Parkinson's disease, neurological orphan disorders, depression and cognitive deficits of schizophrenia. The company has offices in Southern California and in France.
In September 2013, Neurolixis announced that it had in-licensed two clinical-phase drugs from Pierre Fabre Laboratories, a French pharmaceutical company. The drugs (befiradol and F-15599) are targeted to the treatment of dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease and to breathing deficits in Rett syndrome, respectively.
Neurolixis has been awarded a series of research grants by the Michael J. Fox Foundation to undertake research examining the effects of novel, highly selective and efficacious serotonergic drugs targeting 5-HT1A receptors in brain regions relevant to therapeutic properties in Parkinson's disease. The Michael J. Fox Foundation subsequently announced that it was supporting proof-of-principle studies on befiradol in models of Parkinson's disease and showcased Neurolixis in its Partnering Program.
F-15599 (also known as NLX-101) was awarded Orphan Drug Status by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2013 and Orphan Medicinal Product designation by the European Medicines Agency in March 2014. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Bristol, Neurolixis has been awarded a grant by the International Rett Syndrome Foundation to study F-15599 in animal models of Rett Syndrome. In June 2015, Neurolixis was awarded a grant by the Rett Syndrome Research Trust to advance F-15599 to clinical development.