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Melior spins off Parkinson treatment (Update)

Melior II follows diabetes drugmaker Melior I.

(Adds comment from CEO Reaume) Melior Discovery Inc., a 25-person Exton firm that specializes in "drug repositioning," says it has spun off a new company, Melior Pharmaceuticals II LLC, to own and manage its Parkinson's disease therapy, MLR-1019.

The drug has been available in Russia and other former Soviet countries "for psychiatric indications" but was withdrawn when the original factory stopped making it, according to Melior, which tested the drug using Melior's "theraTRACE" live-testing system, found it helped treat Parkinson's, and obtained patents. Melior Discovery is "in discussion with candidate partners" to finance clinical tests "once a partnership is established," perhaps later this year, Melior Discovery chief executive Andrew Reaume told me.

"I am very encouraged by the combination of anti-parkinsonian and anti-dyskinetic effects demonstrated by MLR-1019 in animal models of Parkinson's disease, and look forward to working with Melior Pharmaceuticals II in the clinical development of this product," C. Warren Olanow, Parkinson investigator at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and CEO of Clintrex LLC, said in Melior's statement.

"We are very enthusiastic about the promise that MLR-1019 holds for benefiting Parkinson's patients, especially those who have developed l-dopa induced dyskinesias," as it heads toward clinical testing, said Andrew Reaume, CEO of Melior Discovery.

Melior's previous spin-off, Melior Pharmaceuticals I, develops MLR-1023, a diabetes treatment now in clinical testing. In that deal Melior is backed by Bukwang Pharmaceutical Co., Seoul, S. Korea. Melior I plans to annouince results of a Phase 2 study in mid-June.