UCB and Baylor College of Medicine announce neurodegeneration alliance

UCB has announced a neurodegeneration-focused strategic research alliance with Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.

Led at Baylor by Professor Huda Zoghbi, the collaboration aims to discover new therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative disease, and comes as part of UCB's broader strategy of forming new partnerships with leading academic institutions.

Aimed at furthering the discovery of medicines targeting pathways with a high level of genetic and human validation, the work will leverage the expertise of Professor Zoghbi and her collaborators in using functional genetics in model organisms to identify therapeutic points of intervention for new medicines.

Baylor College of Medicine is located in Houston and is one of the leading academic health sciences centres in the US. It trains more than 3,000 medical, graduate, nurse anaesthesia, physician assistant and orthotics students, as well as residents and post-doctoral fellows.

Ismail Kola, executive vice-president and president of new medicines at UCB, said: "We cannot accelerate discovery of transformational medicines and create value for patients if we work alone."

Last month, the company received European regulatory approval for Briviact, a new therapy for epilepsy.