The Ticino-based biotech firm Gain Therapeutics has received a grant of 1.4 million euros as part of the Eurostars-2 program. The funding has been awarded by the European Union (EU) and the Swiss innovation agency Innosuisse. Gain Therapeutics applied for the financial support as part of a consortium comprising Neuro-Sys SAS in France and the support of Maurizio Molinari from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona (IRB), which is affiliated to Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). The consortium ranked second from a total of 325 applications eligible for funding.
Gain Therapeutics intends to use the fresh funding to further strengthen its innovative treatment approach for rare diseases in the central nervous system, as outlined in a press release. In concrete terms, the company will be focusing on disorders where “lysosomal misfolded enzymes lead to sever clinical phenotypes, where no treatment is available and/or high unmet medical needs still do afflict patients, families and carers”. It is reported that Gain Therapeutics will now be targeting the development of its drugs portfolio for the treatment of Gaucher disease, GM1 Gangliosidosis and Parkinson’s Disease.
In the press release, Molinari commented: “The excellent ranking of our consortium as second best among over 325 eligible consortia from all over Europe is also a rewarding recognition for our long-standing activity in the field of rare diseases. The transnational collaboration with Gain Therapeutics and Neuro-Sys will hopefully offer the opportunity to translate into the clinics, the research activity performed at the IRB and aiming at understanding how perturbations in protein folding may cause severe diseases”.
