The Neuroscientific Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: NSB) share price is up 20% today on the back of an ASX announcement about its lead compound EmtinB. In a preclinical study, the compound demonstrated positive preliminary results in a Multiple Sclerosis (MS) model. In this study, EmtinB was assessed against the leading therapeutic treatment for MS, Copaxone.
Copaxone generated peak sales of approximately US$4 billion in revenue in a market approximately worth in excess of US$20 billion. 2.3 million patients are suffering from MS globally.
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What is Multiple Sclerosis?
According to healthline, "MS is a chronic illness involving your central nervous system. The immune system attacks myelin, which is a protective layer around nerve fibres. This causes inflammation and scar tissue, or lesions. This can make it hard for your brain to send signals to the rest of your body".
What did the study find?
An extension of the concluded study results announced on 18 March 2020 demonstrated that EmtinB had a highly significant positive effect on the proliferation and differentiation of the myelin-forming cells of the central nervous system.
Additionally, in the current study, EmtinB significantly increased myelin formation by greater than 30% at 150 ug/ml concentration. In comparison, the leading marketed drug, Copaxone, demonstrated myelin formation greater than 25% at 120 ug/ml.
Neuroscientific Biopharmaceuticals CEO and Managing Director, Matthew Liddelow, commented "These results represent a potential breakthrough in the treatment of MS as there are currently no approved therapeutic drugs available to patients that have demonstrated the ability to regenerate myelin in the central nervous system".
The company's full report of the study is expected to be available before the end of July.
About Neuroscientific
According to its website, the company's vision is to transform how the pharmaceutical industry approaches the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative disease. It believes no other disease area holds as much need or as much promise for medical breakthroughs as neuroscience.
Prior to today's announcement, the Neuroscientific share price had fallen roughly 23% in the last year. However, the positive result has sent the price soaring today to as high as 30 cents per share at one point. At the time of writing, the company's share price had edged back to 24 cents, giving the group a market capitalisation of $18.81 million.
It will be interesting to see the full report of the study that is expected to be released at the end of July.
