Roche, Prothena Enter Into Worldwide Collaboration to Co-Develop Antibodies for Treatment of Parkinson's Disease

Roche

and Prothena Corporation plc

, announced today that they have entered into a worldwide collaboration to develop and commercialize antibodies that target alpha-synuclein, including PRX002, Prothena's monoclonal antibody for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, which is currently in preclinical development and is expected to enter Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with Parkinson's disease in 2014. Synuclein proteins are a family of charged proteins found throughout the body. One protein from this family, alpha-synuclein, is found extensively in neurons and is a major component of pathological inclusions that characterize several neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation type 1, and multiple system atrophy, which collectively are termed synucleinopathies. "Parkinson's is a severely debilitating and progressive neurodegenerative disease that leads to both a gradual worsening of motor function and cognitive and behavioral alterations," said