To say that it has been a disappointing year for us in the Huntington's Disease community would be a huge understatement. However, I think I can speak for everyone in saying that personally I have learned more from my failures in life than I ever did from my successes. I feel confident that it is the same for scientists and all of the people that work tirelessly to find a way to beat this disease.
There are also new approaches to treating neurodegenerative diseases being explored by a start up company out of California, who today published a press release from Planegg, Martinsried, Germany.
The press release reads as follows:
Bicoll, an expert in synthesizing new and relevant small molecules as starting points for accelerated drug development, announced today its supporting role in the development of novel drug candidates for Huntington’s disease in collaboration with Galyan Bio.
Galyan Bio Inc., a start-up company in California (USA), is developing first-in-class orally available small molecules for neurodegenerative diseases. Working in close collaboration with Bicoll GmbH since 2019, Galyan Bio discloses now to have a drug candidate, which is intended to slow down the disease in symptomatic patients and delay the manifestation of Huntington disease in symptom-free gene carriers. The start of clinical trials is scheduled for 2022.
“This collaboration once again highlights the wide spectrum of areas where small molecules demonstrate their proven track record. Decades of experience of Bicoll’s synthetic and analytic team have enabled the fast pace optimization program that led to a drug candidate for Galyan Bio. Bicoll is proud of its support to Galyan Bio in all stages of preclinical testing and development, including scaling up of the initial active compounds to multigram scale. Our team is delighted to have contributed to this set of new, patented compounds, which is representing a promising new class of powerful Huntington’s disease drug candidates. We are looking forward to the outcome of the planned clinical trials” said Bicoll GmbH Managing Director Dr. Kai Lamottke.
Dr. Marius Galyan stated: “Bicoll’s continuous support towards integrated small molecule synthesis service combined with ADMET determination enhanced the speed of compound screening rounds considerably. Furthermore, Bicoll’s support in addressing solubility and stability issues of our screening compounds brought us to this success.”
About Bicoll
The Bicoll Group is a privately-owned biopharmaceutical company which includes Bicoll GmbH headquartered near Munich in Planegg / Martinsried, Germany, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Bicoll Biotechnology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Bicoll offers pre-clinical support with an efficient, multi-disciplinary approach to drug discovery. Dedicated to the discovery and optimization of the highest quality lead compounds, Bicoll provides services to international clients in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and related industries. The unique combination of expertise in high-tech natural product chemistry and medicinal chemistry, enables Bicoll to increase the quality and quantity of the drug discovery pipeline of partner’s candidate portfolios.
About Galyan Bio
Galyan Bio Inc. is a start-up company located on Berkeley, California (USA). Galyan is developing first-in-class orally available small molecules for neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and aging. It was founded in 2019 by Dr. Marius Galyan.