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ALS Therapy Development Institute Signs Manufacturing Agreement with Microbix
ALS Therapy Development Institute Signs Manufacturing Agreement with Microbix.
About this update from Microbix Biosystems Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTORONTO, Oct. 16 /CNW/ - Microbix Biosystems Inc.(TSX: MBX) announced\ntoday that it has been selected by the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS\nTDI) in the U.S. to manufacture a series of adenoviruses that will be used in\nresearch aimed at fighting the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS),\noften called Lou Gehrig's disease.\n\n\nThe ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI), based in Cambridge,\nMass., is a leading research organization that works to discover and develop\ndrugs that are potential treatments for ALS and related disorders such as\nAlzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. "The production of high\ntiter adenoviral constructs required for animal testing requires specialized\nmanufacturing expertise that only recognized leaders in the field like\nMicrobix can deliver," says Steve Perrin, Chief Scientific Officer at the ALS\nTDI. "Patients and families should be excited about this collaboration for a\ncouple of reasons. High quality, high volume manufacturing of gene therapies\nwill allow us to switch genes on and off at an unprecedented pace. We're\nscaling this project to get to the answer no matter how many genes we've got\nto modulate. It might be gene 1 or gene 300 that controls the disease so we\nneed to keep marching until we find it," said Sean Scott, president of ALS\nTDI.\n\n\nUnder the terms of the one-year contract, Microbix will use its\nproprietary technology to produce, purify and characterize various\nadenoviruses created to carry therapies to sites of ALS pathology. The\npreparations will then be returned to the Institute, allowing them to further\ntheir research into this debilitating disease. Adenoviruses are non-pathogenic\nviruses that can deliver specifically selected genes to key sites in the body\nor to cultured cells for therapeutic purposes.\n\n\nApproximately 3,000 people in Canada and 30,000 people in the U.S.\ncurrently have ALS, and some 8,000 new cases are diagnosed in North America\neach year. ALS is a progressive neuromuscular disease that attacks motor\nneurons in the brain and spinal cord. Eighty per cent of people with ALS die\nwithin two to five years of diagnosis - unable to breathe or swallow. There is\ncurrently no cure or effective treatment for ALS.\n\n\n"We are honoured to have been chosen by the Institute for this c...