Sanofi has entered into a collaboration with the Michael J Fox Foundation which will conduct a clinical trial to assess one of the French drugmaker’s early-stage treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
Under the terms of the collaboration, the MJFF will sponsor a Phase Ib study to evaluate the safety and tolerability of Sanofi’s AVE8112, a phosphodiesterase type IV inhibitor, in patients with PD. All data and results generated will be owned by the MJFF and shared with Sanofi, while “further development plans” will be based on the results of the study, which will be conducted in Baltimore and Los Angeles.
Sanofi R&D chief Elias Zerhouni said that “we hope to continue to develop relationships with private foundations like the MJFF to pool our resources and maximise the potential of our drug portfolio”. The foundation’s chief executive Todd Sherer noted that AVE8112 has shown “promising pro-cognitive activity in preclinical models that could be of interest”, adding that “groundbreaking collaborations with like-minded partners such as Sanofi…help us speed scientific advances with potential to improve the treatment of PD”.
