WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oligomerix, Inc., a privately held company pioneering the development of small molecule therapeutics targeting tau for rare neurodegenerative and Alzheimer’s diseases, today announced an award of $2.49 million from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health to support clinical development of its lead program OLX-07010, an oral tau self-association small molecule inhibitor. In August, Oligomerix announced a separate R01 NIH award of $3.35 million to support a Phase 1a clinical trial of OLX-07010 in healthy subjects, expected to begin this year.
“We are extremely pleased to receive this R44 grant which will allow us to plan for a Phase 1b, double-blind clinical study of OLX-07010 in patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” said William Erhardt, M.D., President and Head of Development at Oligomerix. “The proposed work is designed to support longer-term dosing required to assess both safety and efficacy of our compound in patients.”
“The prevalence of AD [Alzheimer’s disease] is increasing worldwide," said James Moe, Ph.D., MBA, CEO and Head of Discovery and Strategy at Oligomerix. “There remains an urgent need for disease-modifying drugs for AD that are safe and efficacious, cost-effective and easy to administer. Our lead small molecule inhibitor of tau self-association, OLX-07010, is being evaluated to fill this need. Through the support of our two recent NIH awards and our world-class investor consortium, we are excited by the potential to bring a novel therapeutic option to the millions of patients with AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.”
Oligomerix has completed the preclinical work needed to support an investigational new drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which was filed in mid-2022 to enable the initiation of a first-in-human, Phase 1a study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of OLX-07010 in healthy subjects.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 6.5 million Americans suffer from AD. By 2050, this number is expected to increase dramatically to 12.7 million. Furthermore, the current cost for AD is $321 billion and projected to be more than $1 trillion by 2050. OLX-07010 would potentially fill a significant unmet need with a disease-modifying drug that, if successful, will have a tremendous impact on patient outcomes and reduce the burden on caregivers and society.
About OLX-07010
OLX-07010 is an oral, small molecule inhibitor of tau self-association that targets the beginning of the tau aggregation cascade, a process believed to be implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Oligomerix’s lead candidate has demonstrated efficacy in multiple animal models of tau-mediated neurodegeneration. Phase 1a first-in-human clinical studies are expected to be initiated before the end of 2022.
About Oligomerix, Inc.
Oligomerix is an emerging clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing disease-modifying therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases characterized by aberrant tau protein ranging from rare tauopathies such as progressive supranuclear palsy and frontotemporal dementia to Alzheimer’s disease.
Oligomerix discovers and develops differentiated, oral, small molecule inhibitors of tau self-association that are potentially easy to administer and cost-effective. Oligomerix’s portfolio of compounds is expected to provide a potentially lower-cost treatment alternative or complement the newly emerging high-cost therapeutic options such as monoclonal antibody products.
Oligomerix is headquartered at the Westchester Park Center in White Plains, New York and has lab facilities at the Ullmann Research Center for Health Sciences within the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Follow Oligomerix on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Oligomerix is seeking strategic partners and investors to support the acceleration and advancement of these important programs. For more information about Oligomerix, please visit our website at https://oligomerix.com/.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1R44AG077991-01A1 The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
