5 January 2012 - The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) said on Thursday that it granted USD1m (EUR778,000) to Tivorsan Pharmaceuticals Inc, a US-based biotechnology company developing a novel protein therapeutic to combat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).

The funds will be used to help speed pre-clinical work that is of key importance to the company's filing of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a recombinant humanised form of biglycan as a potential muscular dystrophy treatment.

Tivorsan's project is focused on treating DMD by up-regulating the utrophin protein that has been proven to provide some compensation for disease-causing dystrophin deficiency in animals with DMD-like muscular dystrophy. The company's TVN-102 investigational compound is based on biglycan, a naturally occurring protein found on the membrane surrounding each muscle fibre. In the standard mouse model of DMD, biglycan reduced muscle damage and muscle degeneration and helped improve muscle function.

(USD1 = EUR0.778)