XenoPort receives grant from Michael J. Fox Foundation to support Parkinson's disease therapies

XenoPort, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNPT) announced today that it has been awarded a grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to support a preclinical study of the efficacy and safety of a novel, orally administered prodrug of acamprosate in reducing L-Dopa induced dyskinesias (LID) in a pre-clinical model of Parkinson's disease. The grant of $194,000 was awarded under the Foundation's Therapeutics Development Initiative Fall 2010 Program aimed at supporting preclinical development of Parkinson's disease therapies that have the potential for fundamentally altering disease course and improving treatment of symptoms above and beyond current standards of care.

“We are enthusiastic about partnering in XenoPort's preclinical acamprosate prodrug program and are hopeful that this effort will help to speed progress toward a breakthrough treatment for dyskinesia.”

"Levodopa-induced dyskinesia is a high-priority research area for The Michael J. Fox Foundation because patients report that it is one of the most disabling aspects of living with Parkinson's disease," said Sohini Chowdhury, Vice President of Research Partnerships, MJFF. "We are enthusiastic about partnering in XenoPort's preclinical acamprosate prodrug program and are hopeful that this effort will help to speed progress toward a breakthrough treatment for dyskinesia."

XenoPort-sponsored preclinical studies have previously shown that acamprosate decreases LID in a rodent model of Parkinson's disease. XenoPort's award from The Michael J. Fox Foundation will support a preclinical study that will be conducted in collaboration with researchers at The Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California to evaluate the effectiveness of XenoPort's acamprosate prodrug to inhibit LID.

Functional interactions between the dopamine and glutamate neurotransmission pathways are thought to play a role in the induction and maintenance of LID. Acamprosate calcium has been shown to inhibit glutamate release and is used clinically for the treatment of alcohol relapse, but the current formulation of acamprosate has low oral bioavailability and can cause gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances (emesis and nausea) following administration. To address these limitations, XenoPort has designed a novel prodrug of acamprosate that appears to be more readily absorbed after oral administration. This allows a similar or higher exposure to acamprosate to be achieved with a lower dose. In addition to evaluating inhibition of LID, the study is designed to confirm that the potential anti-LID efficacy of acamprosate does not interfere with the anti-parkinsonian effect of L-Dopa treatment.

Ronald W. Barrett, Ph.D., chief executive officer of XenoPort, said, "We are pleased to be the recipient of The Michael J. Fox Foundation award. This enables us to extend our preclinical studies of this novel acamprosate prodrug, which we hope will validate this approach to reducing LID in patients with Parkinson's disease."