Member Article

Over £1.17m funding for North East biomedical projects

Two North East biomedical projects have secured over £1.17m of funding from a Government scheme to boost health industry activity.

Through £1m funding from the Medical Research Council, Newcastle University will undertake clinical trials to see whether a drug developed to treat cancer can be “repurposed” to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust have also £178,000 funding to perform clinical assessment of Newcastle-based MANUS Neurodynamica’s innovative tool for early diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease.

The funding is part of the £25.9m third wave of Biomedical Catalyst money announced this week, a joint programme from the Technology Strategy Board and Medical Research Council that aims to fund SMEs and researchers addressing healthcare challenges.

Professor Sir John Savill, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said: “Several of the MRC and Technology Strategy Board awards announced today build on previous MRC funding and this research is now reaching an exciting stage of clinical development.

“It’s fantastic to see this investment beginning to bear fruit. It clearly demonstrates that the Biomedical Catalyst is fulfilling its goal of providing seamless support from early research in universities through to commercialisation by small and medium-sized companies. We look forward to continuing our successful collaboration with the Technology Strategy Board into round 4 and beyond.”

Speaking about the Newcastle University project, Professor John Isaacs, director of the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University and lead investigator, said: “Repurposing of drugs is a potentially powerful way of bridging the gap between early stage research and development of a new treatment. Compared with traditional drug discovery approaches, this is a considerably cheaper and quicker route to the clinic because it ‘leap-frogs’ the early stages of drug development.

“If our trial proves successful it could dramatically improve the treatment outcomes for RA patients. It could also lead to further repositioning of similar drugs to treat other diseases such as cirrhosis and lung fibrosis, which will deliver additional benefits for the health service and the UK life sciences industry.”

Dr Rutger Zietsma, director and owner of MANUS Neurodynamica, added: “This is great news! Technology Strategy Board funding along with a private investment enables us to finalise the development of the Manus pen as a diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s.

“This takes us a step closer to having a market ready product that can transform the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s Disease.

“It’s fantastic to see the final clinical trial taking place in the North East, following work with partners across Europe.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .