Biopharma firm to commence phase 2 study of oral small molecule drug for Parkinson’s

A New York-based biopharmaceutical company has received a grant from Cure Parkinson’s to initiate a phase 2 clinical trial investigating dapansutrile, an oral small molecule, as a disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson’s disease.

According to a release from Olatec Therapeutics, the investigator-initiated study is expected to enroll 36 individuals in the early stages of PD. Patients will be treated for 6 months with either dapansutrile or placebo, followed by an optional 6-month open-label phase.

The trial will be conducted at the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair in the department of clinical neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. Caroline H. Williams-Gray, BM, BCh, MRCP, PhD, leader of the Cambridge Parkinson’s Disease Research Clinic, will be the study’s principal investigator.

Olatec added in the release that initiation should commence by mid-2024.

“Olatec’s specific NLRP3 inhibitor, dapansutrile, is being positioned as a best in class therapeutic in gout and other metabolic diseases,” Olatec founder and CEO, Damaris Skouras, told Healio in an email. “This Parkinson’s trial enables us to extend dapansutrile’s clinical development into its first [central nervous system] indication and furthers our mission to treat the dysregulated inflammatory component driving major acute and chronic diseases.”