New drug discovery company to focus on Alzheimer's

CoCo Therapeutics is a joint project between King's College London, The Wellcome Trust and Advent Venture Partners.

A new drug discovery company has been established to progress research into the development of new treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

CoCo Therapeutics has been formed by King's College London, The Wellcome Trust and Advent Venture Partners to provide a vehicle for the research of Professor Jonathan Corcoran.

Specifically, the biopharmaceutical firm will focus on the role of the retinoic acid receptor, RAR-alpha and associated molecules that have been shown to help prevent progression of the disease.
Professor Corcoran has been working since 2008 to show that molecules acting on RAR-alpha can affect various parts of the disease pathway for Alzheimer's.

He said: "I am delighted to be working with Advent on this project. Our research has shown early promise in this area and this partnership will enable us to progress the work further. This is an exciting step forward in the search for effective Alzheimer's disease treatments."

The most common cause of dementia, Alzheimer's is estimated to affect approximately 417,000 people in the UK and 5.3 million in the US. Projections suggest that these numbers will double by 2050 unless new treatments and interventions are developed.