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Global pharamaceutical company Lundbeck have gained ownership of technologies that will aid the treatment of brain damage after acquiring Danish company Neuronlcon.
Lundbeck’s attainment of the biotech company is further evidence of the company’s stranglehold on innovative pharmaceutical technology, with Lundbeck also signing a collaborative agreement with the University of Arhus on additional neurology research. There is great need for effective treatment in this area and the deal allows therapies for acute brain damage following strokes or skull fractures to be developed. This aims to stop patients living with serious disabilities due to the lack of treatment options.
Jan Egebjerg, Divisional Director of Lundbeck’s biologic research unit said, “NeuronIcon has produced new knowledge about why and how nerve cells in the brain are lost. This knowledge and the company’s promising technologies provide a solid foundation for Lundbeck to develop new pharmaceuticals for improved treatment of the very serious brain disorders that lead to nerve cell destruction.”
Lundbeck’s collaboration with the University of Arhus will enable the company to continue research in this area. It also allows them to work closely with scientists that have made the world’s first discoveries of how the body’s own protein Sortilin kills nerve cells if activated in special situations that arise in connection with disorders such as stroke, spinal cord injuries and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Soren E Frandsen, pro-rector of strategic areas at the university said, “We at the University of Aarhus are very pleased with this agreement. The agreement reflects how the university can obtain unrestricted funds for basic research, which the business community, in this case Lundbeck, can subsequently employ. This is a mutually fruitful type of collaboration, and we would like to develop this type of collaboration to other areas of research.”
Chief executive officer and co-founder of Neuronclon, Anders Nykjaer, was equally enthusiastic about the collaboration with Lundbeck. “We have been very happy with our collaboration with Lundbeck these past few years. Lundbeck has the expertise to ensure the successful commercial utilisation of NeuronIcon’s discoveries in a number of disabling psychiatric and neuro-degenerative disorders.”
