Dundee sank an additional $10.5 million into TauRx Pharmaceuticals to support three ongoing Phase III trials of LMTX™ in Alzheimer’s disease and behavioral-variant Fronto-Temporal Dementia. The first patients have been enrolled into each of the three studies.

Dundee made its initial investment of $20 million in TauRx in September 2011. It now maintains a 5% stake in TauRx.

“TauRx has made good use of our initial investment, gaining regulatory clearance to initiate its Phase III study program for LMTX and establishing a network of experienced service providers to support the studies,” said Ned Goodman, president and CEO of Dundee.

In October 2012, TauRx initiated two Phase III trials in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. The studies culminated more than thirty years of research by Claude Wischik, chairman of TauRx and professor of old age psychiatry at the University of Aberdeen, and colleagues, including the discovery of the Tau protein as the main constituent of the Tangle pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (Tau tangles), the development of the first Tau Aggregation Inhibitor (TAI), and results from an earlier Phase II trial involving more than 300 patients that showed a 90% reduction in the rate of disease progression over two years.

According to TauRx, LMTX works by reducing levels of aggregated or mis-folded Tau proteins, which are intimately associated with the cause of and the progressive neurodegeneration of Alzheimer’s disease. LMTX, is a second-generation TAI that targets the Tau tangles and their precursors, dissolving them in order to halt their harmful effects on memory.

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