Obtaining new natural compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease - PLANT -ALZH
At this stage, we have one patent and further patent applications pending. If activity in clinical trials is confirmed, we do not exclude the establishment of a spin-off company with the participation of the parent research unit
Project title
Obtaining new natural compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease - PLANT -ALZH
Name of Beneficiary/Beneficiaries
Medical University of Lublin
Name of programme
International programmes
Competition
Bilateral international Poland-Turkey cooperation (NCRD - TUBITAK) (1 call)
Project value
PLN 813,413.00
Project partners
Acibadem University, Istanbul, Turkey; doc. dr. Ahmet Tarik Baykal and associates
Project delivery period
1/04/2016 - 30/09/2018
View the results of our work
I think that for such a short project period (3 years), the output is impressive: 8 publications have already been published in journals on the Philadelphia list, and several more are in the process of being published due to extended biological studies. There are also patents and numerous lectures and poster reports at international scientific conferences, and, very importantly, we have identified compounds that raise hopes for their potential use in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Of course, this requires additional extended research.
Did you manage to develop a product or technology ready to be put on the market?
It is still too early to talk about a drug for Alzheimer's disease, as toxicological and clinical studies need to be carried out on the one leading natural substance we have selected. However, studies with a Turkish centre have produced such spectacular preclinical results on an animal model of Alzheimer's disease that we very much hope to be able to put such a new drug on the market in the long term.
What was the path to commercialisation of the results?
At this stage, we have one patent and further patent applications pending. If activity in clinical trials is confirmed, we do not exclude the establishment of a spin-off company with the participation of the parent research unit. In the future, we plan to continue our research with the Turkish side, preparing another bilateral project that will enable us to take a step further towards clinical research on selected compounds that may find applications in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. We are also thinking about a large project funded by European Union funds and further stages of commercialisation of the new drug.
Did you encounter any difficulties in commercialisation, and how did you overcome them?
At this stage, everything is running smoothly. We hope that the next stages will also be fruitful.
How is the issue of intellectual property governed in the project?
We have fairly distributed the scientific shares according to the nature of the research. Some of the publications and patents were published by one party due to the involvement of only scientists from either the Polish or Turkish centre. However, the most crucial scientific achievements are those of the scientists from both centres involved in the project.