Accure Therapeutics Granted USD 1.6 Million to Advance Parkinson’s Drug Candidate
The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Luxembourg National Research Fund have provided funding for two separate projects assessing Accure Therapeutics’ ACT-02 for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Private translational neuroscience R&D company, Accure Therapeutics, has received two grants totalling USD 1.6 million, which it will use to advance two separate development programs on its drug candidate, ACT-02. These grants, which were announced by the company in an April 7, 2025 press release, will help support the advancement of the preclinical work required to get the novel asset into clinical development by 2026 (1).
The company has been granted USD 1.12 million from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), which will be used to fund the preclinical activities needed to complete investigational new drug studies for ACT-02 as a disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD). This project will be a collaborative effort between Accure and the Institute of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmacy at Stifung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover.
“Our team is extremely keen to further study ACT-02 which has already demonstrated neuroprotective effects in dopaminergic neurons, reduction of α-synuclein aggregation and neuroinflammation, while improving mitochondrial functioning and enhancing the motor and cognitive performance in Thy1-aSyn mice (line 61) experiments,” said Prof. Dr. Franziska Richter Assencio, head of department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmacy at Stifung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, in the press release (1).
The further €0.48 million in funding has been granted to Accure through the FNR BRIDGES program, which is managed by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR). This funding will be used to support the Transcend-PD project, which is aimed at assessing the efficacy of ACT-02 in highly transitional patient derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of PD. Accure Therapeutics will collaborate with the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) Translational Neuroscience group, led by Prof. Rejko Krüger neurologist and Professor in Neurosciences at the University of Luxembourg, on this project.
“This public–private collaboration will allow us to get more insights into first causative treatments for Parkinson’s disease by further describing the effect of modulating a new target, PREP, with a new orally active drug candidate,” said Krüger, in the press release (1). “We will extend the highly translational PD iPSC work to test its efficacy, aiming at better guiding patient selection and stratification in future clinical trials.”
PD is a neurodegenerative condition that is reportedly becoming rapidly more prevalent in the global population. According to market research, the PD treatment market size is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.04% between 2025 and 2030, and forecast to reach USD7.58 billion in 2030 (2).
“We are grateful to MJFF and the FNR for their funding support of our ACT-02 asset as a potential therapy for people with PD. These two grants are significant steps forward for us and our academic partners in the development of our first-in-class drug candidate, ACT- 02, for Parkinson’s disease,” added Laurent Nguyen, co-founder and CEO at Accure, in the press release (1).
References
Accure Therapeutics. Accure Therapeutics Awarded a Total of $1.6M in Grants from The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Fonds National de Recherche de Luxembourg to Bring First-in-Class Drug for Parkinson’s Disease to Clinical Trials. Press Release, April 7, 2025.
Grand View Research. Parkinson’s Disease Treatment Market Size, Share, and Trends Analysis Report by Drug Class (Carbidopa-Levodopa, Dopamine Agonists, MAO-B Inhibitors), by Distribution Channel (Hospital Pharmacy, Retail Pharmacy), by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2025–2030. Market Research Report, Jan. 27, 2025.