Sigma Tau, Thuris in CNS alliance

Drug development and biomedical company Thuris and Italian pharmaceutical company Sigma-Tau Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite on Monday announced an expansion of their ongoing research collaboration to develop compounds to combat brain inflammation.

Under the new agreement, Thuris will broaden the experimental scope into living animals. Further routes of inquiry include the production of combination therapeutics for use across a host of brain disorders characterised by inflammation. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"The original collaboration produced significant results in our in vitro models of brain inflammation. We are pleased to see that Sigma-Tau wants to move this project into live animals,"​ said Keith B. Hoffman, vice-president of Thuris.

Claudio Cavazza, president of Sigma-Tau, added: "We are very pleased to expand our collaboration with Thuris. The coupling of Thuris' brain inflammation models with Sigma-Tau's compounds has already produced some key results. We are confident that this expansion will lead to new therapeutic approaches."​

Thuris' RapidAging technology - that creates certain primary pathologies in three to six days - is a system for testing potential anti-aging and Alzheimer's drugs directly against pathologies including neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid toxicity, inflammatory reactions and microglial activations.