Antipodean Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
“An innovative Parkinson’s disease-fighting drug invented at Otago University and developed by NZ pharmaceutical firm Antipodean Biotechnology is a prime example of the kind of novel science Otago Innovation wants to translate into products that significantly benefit health and society.
Dubbed ‘MitoQ’, the compound was invented by top Medicinal Chemist Professor Robin Smith and former Otago colleague and world-renowned mitochondria expert Dr Mike Murphy to slow the progression of Parkinson’s. Together, they combined their respective areas of expertise to tackle this and other neuro-degenerative diseases.
About Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder that results from nerve cell death or impairment in the part of the brain that controls movement. It can cause tremors, stiffness, and other difficulty moving.
Parkinson’s disease affects as many as 1.5 million people in the United States and up to four million worldwide. While most patients are over 65 years of age, up to 15% are under 50. Current medicines that treat symptoms can lose potency over time; no available treatment delays or modifies the course of the disease.
Currently untreatable, Parkinson’s develops when the nerve cells in the part of the brain that produce dopamine begin to die, leading to a lack of coordination and other difficulties such as tremors, still muscles and joints.
Existing therapies only relieve symptoms, but if MitoQ proves effective, it will be the first to actually slow the progression of the disease. Recent research has increasingly linked the death of dopamine-producing nerve cells to damage caused when the mitochondria – the energy source or “batteries” of cells – fail to properly metabolise food and oxygen.
About MitoQ
MitoQ is based on a novel technology, targeted lipophilic cation, that transport and concentrate antioxidants into the mitochondria organelles inside cells that provide energy for life processes where they accumulate up to a thousand fold. In 2004, a genomic study of hereditary early-onset Parkinson’s disease demonstrated a direct molecular link between mitochondrial dysfunction and the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease.
Mitochondrial dysfunction also has been shown to represent an early critical event in the pathogenesis of the sporadic form of Parkinson’s disease. Clinical studies by the Parkinson’s Study Group show that very high doses of an antioxidant called Co-enzyme Q (which MitoQ effectively targets into mitochondria) appear to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease symptoms.
About Antipodean
Antipodean is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing treatments for Parkinson’s Disease and other disorders associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. The company’s lead product, MitoQ, is being investigated in Phase 2 trials in Parkinson’s disease. Antipodean recently opened its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California and maintains an operational base in Auckland, New Zealand.
The company works closely with researchers and investigators in New Zealand and Australia as well as in the Bay Area and elsewhere in the United States to develop MitoQ and other therapeutics based on mitochondrial targeting.
Antipodean, under Dr Ken Taylor’s leadership, has progressed the project to a point where Otago Innovation confidently transferred the intellectual property to the new company charged with international development, Antipodean Pharmaceuticals Inc.”
