BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - Proximagen Neuroscience plc, a start-up that to date has raised just £400,000 (US$764,000) in seed capital, is attempting to go public on the Alternative Investment Market in London, hoping to raise £12 million for developing its pipeline of four treatments for Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The London-based company was founded in November 2003 by Peter Jenner, chief scientific officer and head of the neurodegenerative diseases research group at King's College London. In the nine months ended November 2004, it made a profit of £20,000 on turnover of £581,000 from drug discovery services in the area of neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation.

Nigel Whittle, program development consultant and a nonexecutive director, told BioWorld International, "We do not intend to further develop the services side, but will invest [the IPO proceeds] to try and move products forwards as quickly as possible."

The plan is to take the preclinical-stage compounds through to Phase II proof of concept over the next two to three years and then out-license them.

If the IPO is successful, Proximagen would have a market capitalization of £30 million, a handsome return for IP2IPO Group plc, the sole investor, which owns 46.1 percent. IP2IPO specializes in commercializing university research and has a five-year agreement with King's College to invest £5 million in spinout companies.

King's College holds 26 percent and Jenner 16 percent of Proximagen. The company is run by CEO Ken Mulvany, a former managing partner for Stratagem Group, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco; and Chairman Bruce Campbell, who formerly was vice president of development at Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., of San Diego.

Proximagen's program focuses on PRX1, derivatives of the dopamine replacement-therapy levodopa. In contrast to levodopa, which has poor bioavailability and a short half-life, the analogues are stable, show improved absorption and increased duration of action, Proximagen said. It is believed that will reduce the incidence of dyskinesia, the involuntary movements that are a major side effect of levodopa.

Its PRX2 program is designed to treat dyskinesia induced by levodopa or dopamine agonists. In animal models it suppresses dyskinesia without inhibiting activity of those drugs, and Proximagen has applied for patents using PRX2 in combination with the existing treatments.

PRX4 is a protein implicated in the control of inflammatory changes that are involved in the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, and PRX3 is an in-licensed product that prevents or slows neuronal cell death by interfering with an (unspecified) pathway that is implicated in Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.