Yumanity Therapeutics, a company focused on discovering transformative therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases, announced its lead clinical candidate, YTX-7739, is entering IND-enabling studies for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and related disorders. YTX-7739 is a novel therapeutic, focused on a novel target newly identified to play a role in Parkinson’s Disease discovered using Yumanity Therapeutics’ proprietary drug discovery platform. YTX-7739 is expected to enter first-in-human studies by the fourth quarter of 2019.
“In two short years, the team at Yumanity has made unprecedented progress advancing our lead program to development stage candidate,” said Ken Rhodes, Ph.D., chief scientific officer, Yumanity Therapeutics. “Our proprietary discovery platforms have revealed novel targets and therapeutic approaches to neurodegenerative diseases, enabling us to bring YTX-7739 forward for development on an accelerated timeframe. We’re excited to initiate our collaboration with Evotec, leveraging the strength of their INDiGO platform to begin development of YTX-7739.”
Evotec will apply their industry-leading INDiGO platform to support clinical development of YTX-7739. The INDiGO platform is a component of Evotec’s broad EVT Execute business strategy and accelerates drug candidates into the clinic by reducing time from nomination to IND submission to 52 weeks or less. Accelerated development is achieved by tightly integrating traditional drug development activities into a single project managed under one roof.
About YTX-7739
YTX-7739 is Yumanity Therapeutics’ proprietary lead candidate designed to inhibit the activity of a novel target that plays an important and previously unrecognized role in the neurotoxicity caused by the a-synuclein protein, a major driver of Parkinson’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders.
Misfolding and aggregation of the a-synuclein protein triggers a cascade of events, ultimately resulting in neurotoxicity and the subsequent disorders in movement and cognition that affect people living with these diseases. YTX-7739 has been shown to inhibit many of the key aspects of a-synuclein toxicity.
(Source: Yumanity Therapeutics)
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
