EIP Pharma closes financing for new indications for former Vertex drug

EIP Pharma, a central nervous system-focused therapeutics company, announced the successful completion of $11.2 million in new private funding to explore the use of an investigational drug as a treatment for dementia with Lewy bodies and for the cognitive deficits in Huntington's disease.

Neflamapimod (previously VX-745) was discovered by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and licensed by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based EIP Pharma in 2014. Prior to licensing, Vertex had completed extensive testing, including long-term non-clinical toxicity studies and Phase 1 and initial Phase 2a clinical studies in non-CNS diseases.

An ongoing trial will provide proof-of-concept results in patients with Early Alzheimer's disease this fall.

This new funding will allow EIP to evaluate the potential of neflamapimod in two other diseases where cognitive deficits are prominent, dementia of Lewy bodies and Huntington's disease. Phase 2 clinical studies in these new disease indications for neflamapimod are expected to be initiated in the second quarter.

Read the press release.