Amarantus BioSciences Inc. Sunnyvale, Calif, a biotechnology company developing new treatments for brain-related disorders including Parkinson’s disease and traumatic brain injury, and Rainbow Coral Corp, Nokomis, Fla, biotech subsidiary Rainbow BioSciences, have selected NuroPro, Amarantus’ Parkinson’s disease blood test in development to diagnose symptomatic and asymptomatic Parkinson’s sufferers, as the target product candidate for the proposed joint venture.
The pending agreement will see the two entities partner toward the commercialization of NuroPro.
The NuroPro test works by measuring differentiated levels of biomarkers from blood serum in people who have Parkinson’s disease. NuroPro has completed a Phase 1 human clinical trial. The companies expect to initiate a Phase 2 clinical study in 2013. It is anticipated that upon successfully completing Phase 2, NuroPro will be introduced into the marketplace as a Laboratory Developed Test ("LDT") in a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment ("CLIA") certified laboratory prior to initiating a regulatory process with the Food and Drug Administration.
The market for Parkinson’s could grow to a value of $3.75 billion by 2015, according to a report last year by Visiongain analysts.
[Source: Amarantus BioSciences]
