Jean-Chrétien Norreel

Despite recent advances in diagnostics, imaging, medical devices and surgical procedures, there has been limited progress in pharmacological treatments for a number of neurological and neuro-oncological pathologies. For pathologies like central and peripheral nervous system injuries, degenerative diseases and tumours of the nervous system, the unmet medical needs are countless and there is growing expectation from the medical community, the patients and their relatives to benefit from clinically proven solutions in the future that will save and/or improve the lives of many. The limited efficacy of approved therapies for some of these pathologies and the orphan nature of others has prompted the urgent need for new researches and therapeutic strategies. At Pharmaxon, as the pioneers of a novel pharmacological approach based on cell mobility modulation, the firm is developing the future 'control keys' for improving the nervous system's endogenous regeneration, modulating neuronal networks plasticity, and inhibiting the processes which underlie tumour cell proliferation and migration. This is obtained by modulating the activity of specific adhesion molecules implicated in cell migration, cell adhesion and cell growth. Based on such a targeted strategy, Pharmaxon is opening up new avenues for the medical management of some serious, poorly-treated, neurology and neuro-oncology pathologies. To date, this has led to three R&D programs which have reached proof-of-principle, confirming the therapeutic potential of this innovative approach, in clinic stage by 2008.