Advancell and Neurotec start tests on a new drug for multiple sclerosis sufferers

October 2011

The Talde portfolio company Advancell and NeurotecPharma have begun patient testing of an innovative new oral treatment for multiple sclerosis sufferers.It is a new drug, totally different from those already on the market for combating this disease.

The drugs currently used are immunomodulators, which have major side effects.They are also of limited efficiency and require intravenous or subcutaneous administration.However, experimentation on animal models has shown that the new drug has no immunosuppressive action and that it has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects.  It is also one of the first treatments that will be administered orally.

The testing will be carried out on 105 patients in 11 public hospitals in Spain and 3 in Germany, and it will be run by Pablo Villoslada, the director of the Neuroimmunology team at Barcelona’s IDIBAPS-Hospital Clínic. It will receive an investment of 2.2 million euros, financed by Advancell and NeurotecPharma with support from the Catalonia Autonomous Government and the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Talde

TALDE is Spain’s pioneer private group for venture capital investment management. Founded in 1977, it has over 30 years’ experience in value creation for small and medium enterprises and has invested in over 150 portfolio companies.

TALDE currently manages funds totalling 165 million euros, and its most recent operations include holdings in Noa Visual Group (2011), a world leader in visual merchandising products; Neo-Sky (2011), specialists in provision of telecommunications services to companies and optical fibre marketing; the BC Group (2010), a leading firm in Spain and Portugal in outsourcing of bank documentation processing and management services, and Palacios Group (2009), one of the benchmark companies in the Spanish food sector.

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