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TorreyPines Therapeutics Initiates Phase I Clinical Trial of NGX267 for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- TorreyPines Therapeutics today announced that it has initiated a Phase I clinical trial of NGX267 for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. In preclinical models, NGX267 has shown properties suggesting potential as a therapy for symptomatic improvement and disease modification in Alzheimer's disease.

"The initiation of this clinical trial marks a significant step forward in executing our development plans for our M1 agonist platform," said Neil Kurtz, M.D., Chief Executive Officer at TorreyPines Therapeutics. "NGX267 is the first of several small molecule compounds we are developing to treat Alzheimer's disease. We believe these compounds could offer significant advantages over what is currently approved to treat Alzheimer's disease."

The Phase I clinical trial will be conducted at one center in Arizona and will enroll approximately 55 healthy volunteers. The single dose trial will focus on assessing tolerance, safety and pharmacokinetics of NGX267. If successful, this trial will be followed by a second Phase I trial to be conducted in an age appropriate population that more closely emulates Alzheimer's disease patients.

NGX267 is a muscarinic or M1 receptor agonist. The M1 receptor plays an important role in memory and cognitive processing. Its activation has also been linked to a decrease in A-beta42 production, a peptide that is involved in the creation of the amyloid plaques that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

"As we develop a dossier of data from our clinical trials, we hope to show that the selectivity of NGX267 in enhancing M1 cholinergic neurotransmission in the brain will improve memory and other cognitive processes in Alzheimer's disease with an acceptable adverse event profile," said Michael Murphy, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Discovery and Development and Chief Medical Officer of TorreyPines Therapeutics. "By reducing the creation of neurotoxic peptides, NGX267 may also delay disease progression."

About TorreyPines Therapeutics

TorreyPines Therapeutics, formerly Neurogenetics Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops breakthrough small molecule drugs to treat diseases and disorders of the central nervous system. Led by an accomplished management team, the company is leveraging novel drug targets and technologies to deliver new therapies for migraine, neuropathic pain and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Its breakthrough therapies are intended to offer significant advantages over current therapies. Further information is available at http://www.torreypinestherapeutics.com/.

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. Such statements are only predictions and the company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such differences include the risk that products that appeared promising in early research and clinical trials do not demonstrate safety or efficacy in larger-scale clinical trials and the risk that the company will not obtain approval to market its products.

TorreyPines Therapeutics

CONTACT: Evelyn Graham of TorreyPines Therapeutics, Inc.,+1-858-623-5665 ext. 118, egraham@torreypinestherapeutics.com; or media, KathyW. Sweeney of Mentus, +1-858-455-5500, ext. 230, kwitz@mentus.com, forTorreyPines Therapeutics, Inc.; or investors, Rhonda Chiger of RxCommunications, +1-917-322-2569, rchiger@RxIR.com, for TorreyPinesTherapeutics, Inc., for TorreyPines Therapeutics, Inc.

Web site: http://www.torreypinestherapeutics.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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