NeuroDiscovery and CSIRO sign collaboration agreement

Perth-based neurology-focused biotech company NeuroDiscovery (ASX:NDL) and the CSIRO have entered into a research collaboration agreement.

NeuroDiscovery will screen CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies' chemical library in order to discover new connexin and pannexin drug candidates for the treatment of various neurological diseases, with particular emphasis on naturopathic pain in the first instance.

Together, NeuroDiscovery and CSIRO will aim to identify potential drug leads and optimise these leads into development candidates, the company said. NeuroDiscovery will then develop the compounds through the preclinical and clinical stages.

"NeuroDiscovery's 100 per cent subsidiary NeuroSolutions has demonstrated that the specific group of proteins which form the connexin and pannexin families represent important clinical targets for the potential treatment of a multitude of neurological disorders," said NeuroDiscovery executive director David McAuliffe.

NeuroDiscovery raised AUD$1.5 million and listed on the ASX in mid-2005 to purchase UK-based NeuroSolutions, which has a mature pipeline of programs for the treatment of pain.