Press release
Investment raises hopes of new dementia treatments
Published on 21 December 2022
University of Dundee spinout Amphista Therapeutics has received a boost in its efforts to develop new drugs for neurogenerative diseases such as dementia.
The Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) has made an unspecified Series B extension investment in recognition of progress made by Amphista’s Eclipsys™ platform and its potential to enable therapies to treat diseases of the central nervous system, with a focus on neurodegeneration.
The investment will allow Amphista, a spinout from the lab of Professor Alessio Ciulli at the University’s School of Life Sciences, to accelerate the application of its technology into diseases largely inaccessible using traditional targeted protein degradation (TPD) approaches.
Amphista CEO Dr Nicola Thompson said, “This investment will enable further pre-clinical development with a focus on diseases of the central nervous system, particularly dementia, and is excellent news.
“It supports our ambition as a world-leading, next-generation protein degradation company delivering ground-breaking new medicines to patients in areas of high unmet need.”
TPD exploits the body’s own cellular waste disposal system to destroy disease-causing proteins, rather than inhibiting their function. This new approach provides hope of treating diseases previously thought to be undruggable and is applicable to diverse areas including oncology, dermatology, immunology, respiratory and central nervous system diseases.
Degrading rather than inhibiting a target protein offers several advantages such as better drug response at lower doses as well as reduced side effects and disease resistance.
Amphista’s technology is specifically designed to create next-generation TPD therapeutics based on mechanistic insights and novel chemistry approaches that enable the company to develop novel protein degrading therapeutics with potentially superior levels of efficacy and broad therapeutic applicability.
The company has raised over $60 million to date and is funded by leading life science investors including Forbion, Gilde Healthcare, Novartis Venture Fund, Advent Life Sciences, BioMotiv and Eli Lilly & Company.
Earlier this year, Amphista announced strategic collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies Merck Healthcare and Bristol Myers Squibb potentially worth more than $2 billion.