Kaldi Pharma granted its first license to CleveXel Pharma, who will develop a preclinical candidate for Parkinson’s disease

Domain Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the research and early development of new drug candidates targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), today announces the creation of a Specific Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Kaldi Pharma, for the exclusive development of its A2a/A1 and A2a antagonist programs.

The mission of Kaldi Pharma is to exploit the patented series of A2a/A1 and A2a antagonists discovered by Domain Therapeutics in any indication in which inhibiting adenosine constitutes a valuable therapeutic approach.

Kaldi Pharma has granted a worldwide license to Clevexel Pharma for the development of the A2a/A1 preclinical candidate for Parkinson’s disease. CleveXel and Kaldi Pharma signed an agreement for sharing future revenues on the program.

Kaldi Pharma is expected to grant a second license for the A2a in oncology to another partner.

It has recently been revealed that combining an A2a antagonist with immune checkpoint blockers results in enhanced antimetastatic effects.

After having entrusted the development of a first product to Prexton Therapeutics, with this SPV Domain reaffirms its strategy of moving forward the development of its products up to clinical proof-of-concept through dedicated entities enabling a flexible approach and optimized value creation of its programs.

“For CleveXel, this partnership with Kaldi paves the way for real development of our company. We are very pleased with this license on the innovative molecule for Parkinson’s disease. CleveXel’s expertise in drug development will undoubtedly add value to this program,” said Christian Bloy, president of CleveXel Pharma. “We will make this product a flagship project in our portfolio and take it through to clinical development.”

“We are very excited by the creation of Kaldi and by the considerable potential of our novel generation of adenosine antagonists as drugs against Parkinson and cancer,” said Pascal Neuville, CEO of Domain Therapeutics and president of Kaldi Pharma. “CleveXel is the perfect partner for Kaldi in CNS indications with their solid expertise in preclinical and clinical drug development.”

About adenosine antagonists

Parkinson's disease is a chronic and progressive neurological disorder characterized by a number of symptoms including tremors, limb stiffness, slowness of movements and difficulties with posture and balance. It is estimated that over 1.5 million people in the United States live with the disease. Parkinson's disease is more prevalent in people over 60. The incidence of the disease is expected to increase as the average age of the population increases.

The Adenosine A2a receptor is a validated GPCR target for Parkinson’s disease that gave rise to three generations of antagonists successively developed by the pharmaceutical industry. Domain’s series belongs to the third generation of antagonists holding competitive features and the ability to improve memory deficit in Parkinson’s disease models. Domain also holds a series of compounds that act only on the A2a receptor. Recently, A2a antagonists have also been shown to enhance the potential of immunotherapy in oncology. (Mittal, Cancer Research, 2014).

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