Neurotrope Inc (OTCMKTS:NTRP) shares were down 0.76% on Friday to $19.55 but up 1.02% to $19.75 in after-hours trading. Share prices have been trading in a 52-week range of $5.76 to $21.76. The company has a market cap of $131.18 million at 6.78 million shares outstanding.
Formerly BlueFlash Communications Inc, Neurotrope Inc is a biopharmaceutical company with product candidates in pre-clinical and clinical development. It is focused on developing a product platform based upon a drug candidate called bryostatin for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is in the clinical testing stage. Bryostatin, which is a protein kinase C (PKC) Alpha and e activator, is also developed for other neurodegenerative or cognitive diseases and dysfunctions, which are in pre-clinical testing.
Its second generation PKC activators, such as the Bryologs are meant for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, lysosomal storage diseases, stroke, cardio protection and traumatic brain injury. It develops Bryostatin-1 for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease along with the rare (Orphan) diseases, such as Fragile X Syndrome and Niemann-Pick Type C. It has completed Phase IIa clinical trials of Bryostatin-1 for the treatment of patients with AD.
In a press release, Neurotrope Inc announced the conclusion of dosing and patient monitoring in its Phase 2 double blind, placebo controlled clinical trial of bryostatin-1 in the treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer’s dementia. In this clinical trial, patients underwent a 12 week treatment with bryostatin-1, followed by a 30-day post-treatment evaluation. The study is designed to assess the therapeutic efficacy of bryostatin-1, a PKC epsilon activator.
We are very pleased with the execution of the study. It took only about 13 months from initiation of randomization of the study to completion the last patient visit,” Dr. Susanne Wilke, Chief Executive Officer of Neurotrope Inc stated. “A reversal of Alzheimer’s progression would represent a major step forward in the treatment of Alzheimer’s dementia patients after years of failed previous trials by other companies and institutions that predominantly targeted amyloid plaque or tau neurofibrillary tangles. Those trials, thus far, have not achieved a significantly reduced rate of decline or improved cognition in any group of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia, mild, moderate, or severe.”
Earlier animal studies have demonstrated the efficiacy of bryostatin for restorative synaptogenesis, prevention of neuronal death, and anti-amyloid, anti-tau metabolism via the activation of PKC epsilon.
The multi-modal efficacy of bryostatin-1 was extensively studied in both animal models and Expanded Access patients with advanced Alzheimer’s dementia. We believe that these studies demonstrated bryostatin’s potential to actually improve cognitive functions, not simply slow the rate of cognitive decline,” stated Dr. Daniel Alkon, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Neurotrope Inc.
The company studied effects during the slow progression of AD pathogenesis in the AD transgenic mice designated Tg2576, which contain the single Swedish mutation, as well as during the more aggressive AD pathogenesis of the 5XFAD mouse strain. According to the results in the 5XFAD mouse strain, both bryostatin-1 and DCP-LA completely reversed the marked deficits of spatial maze learning and memory at 5 months postpartum when amyloid plaques were already abundantly distributed throughout the hippocampus. Also, DCP-LA treatment largely prevented both the deposition of the amyloid plaques and the loss of synaptic connections in the 5XFAD mice.
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