Star puts $1m into UK drug research



Matthew Goodman


PHYTOPHARM, the quoted Cambridgeshire drug developer that makes products from medicinal plants, is to receive a $1.2m (£613,000) grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation to help to fund its research into treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

It will get money over two years to fund preclinical trials of Cogane, a treatment that helps to stimulate production in the brain of the protein GDNF, which is known to ease symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Injecting GDNF into the part of the brain involved can be effective but is exceptionally risky. GDNF cannot be taken orally.

Cogane is being developed to bypass these hurdles and this funding will be used to research the most effective dosing of the drug.

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