Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

 The funds will be used to further optimise Senexis’ small molecule compounds as a potential disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and to progress their preclinical development. The compounds were licensed from London-quoted BTG plc, a shareholder in Senexis, in 2006.

The Wellcome Trust award of £2.9 million is being made available from its Seeding Drug Discovery initiative and augments an investment of £0.8m from BTG in 2007 plus the £2.4 million that BTG and the Wellcome Trust had already invested in Senexis since November 2002.

Mark Treherne, Senexis’ chief executive, said: “We now look forward to being able to accelerate the development of our small molecule compounds towards the clinic.”

According to Ted Bianco, director of technology transfer at the Wellcome Trust, Senexis’ work is particularly timely. He said: “In spite of the attention Alzheimer’s disease receives, we know rather little about how to detect or treat the condition.

“Senexis is exploring an important avenue that we hope may lead to a disease-modifying therapy. It is precisely this sort of pioneering R & D that the Seeding Drug Discovery initiative was set up to facilitate.”

And BTG’s CEO Louise Makin added: “We believe Senexis’ platform and expertise in protecting cells and tissues from amyloid-induced toxicity gives them a real competitive advantage in taking these  innovative compounds forwards.”

The number of people with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to double over the next two decades. Currently, five million people in the US alone are affected.

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