Parkinson's disease (PD) is a slowly progressive disease characterised by the inability to initiate movements resulting in a mask like face, a tremor of resting muscles, muscle rigidity, a slowing of voluntary movements, and an abnormal gait and posture. The disease is a neurodegenerative brain disorder causing the slow death (degeneration) of the basal ganglia region of the brain. For additional information about Parkinson's disease visit www.parkinson.org.
In 2007 the prevalence of Parkinson's disease in the 7 major markets was more than 1.5 million and the global sales of drugs for treatment of Parkinson's disease was US$ 3.7 billion.
Available therapies today primarily treat the symptoms and therefore there is a great need for products that delay or reverse disease progression. Studies have indicated that specific therapeutic factors can have alleviating and also disease-modifying effects if delivered to specific regions of the basal ganglia. Therefore, Parkinson’s disease is of great interest to NsGene as its EC BiodeliveryTM technology is well suited to deliver therapeutic biologicals to these regions in the brain. This makes it possible to develop a disease-modifying therapy and thereby access a market with a large unmet need.
The famous actor Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's disease in 1991 only thirty years old. Upon disclosing his condition in 1998, he committed himself to the campaign for increased Parkinson's disease research.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research is committed to the aggressive pursuit of all ethical avenues of research promising improved therapies and ultimately a cure for people living with Parkinson's disease. In 2004 the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) granted financial support to evaluate GDNF in combination with NsGene's EC BiodeliveryTM technology for to the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Click here to read the Press Release.
