Alzheimer's disease currently affects 12 million people with over 22 million predicted to be afflicted by 2025, increasing to 45 million by 2050.

Current treatments are few and offer limited benefits in terms of symptom improvement, with little impact on disease progression.

The focus of 'Project Shinkanco', a collaboration developed under the PharmaLinks initiative of the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, is to develop novel drug treatments for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders to alleviate memory failure. The projects involved include both new chemical compounds aimed at Alzheimer's and new 'targets' against which further drugs are to be developed. Shinkanco is planned to be the basis for a spin-out company from the universities.

Shinkanco had already obtained funding of £200,000 from the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept fund and will now receive a further £200,000 from the Synergy Fund, the joint Glasgow / Strathclyde University Challenge Fund managed by Scottish Equity Partners, to advance additional parts of the project. This is the largest single investment made by the Fund to date.

Professor Trevor Stone, University of Glasgow Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, spoke of his involvement with the project, ' Shinkanco has a portfolio of projects which have arisen out of the combined research experience and activities of Professor Alan Harvey, from Strathclyde University, and myself.

Each of these projects intends to generate a new drug with which to initially treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's such as loss of memory, mental confusion and eventual loss of motor control, and perhaps eventually slow down or stop the progress of the disease itself.'

Ian Murphy, Business Development Manager at the University, commented, 'The team working on 'Shinkanco' hope to see it evolve into a fully integrated therapeutics development company as progress continues.'

Professor Alan Harvey, Strathclyde University Institute for Drug Research, added, 'The strength of Shinkanco is its portfolio of projects at different stages of development. Even if one project fails because of unexpected technical difficulties, Shinkanco will still have several others in its pipeline. This is unusual for such a young venture, and it was made possible because of the PharmaLinks collaboration between our two universities.'

Professor Stone added, ' I am delighted that we have secured this further support from the Synergy Fund which will we hope be enough to take us to the point where we can seek the major investment necessary to develop these potential treatments to the stage where they can be safely tested in clinical trials.'

The unusual name of the company has interesting origins ﾖ it comes from the name of the Japanese bullet train, the Shinkansen, which was carrying Ian, Alan and Trevor when they first discussed the idea!

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

PharmaLinks is the alliance of the biomedical and pharmaceutical research strengths of the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde that aims to provide an integrated drug discovery environment for collaborations with pharmaceutical companies worldwide. PharmaLinks comprises researchers with interests relating to all elements within the drug discovery and development process.

The University of Glasgow's strengths in the molecular and cellular biosciences and clinical medicine are complemented by the University of Strathclyde's expertise in pharmacy, pharmacology and the Strathclyde Institute for Drug Research (SIDR).

Strong working ties exist between University scientists, the medical faculty and the major hospitals, resulting in fundamental research being driven by knowledge of medical need.

For further information on PharmaLinks contact: Professor Alan Harvey, Director, PharmaLinks, tel: 0141 553 4155, email: a.l.Harvey@strath.ac.uk or see PharmaLinks

For further information on the Shinkanco project contact: Ian Murphy, Director, PharmaLinks, tel: 0141 330 3944, email: i.murphy@enterprise.gla.ac.uk

For further information on the Synergy Fund contact: Catherine Simpson, Associate Director, Scottish Equity Partners tel: 0141 273 4000, email: catherine.simpson@sep.co.uk

First published: 26 November 2002