Servier collaborates with Australia's academia for neurodegenerative disorder research

France’s largest independent drugmaker Laboratoires Servier and the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health together with its collaborative partners, St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research and Monash University, Australia, yesterday announced a collaborative agreement over the role of insulin-regulated aminopeptidase (IRAP) in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Under the terms of the accord, the Florey and its partners will receive from Servier annual support for research activities undertaken as part of the collaboration and support for researchers to work on the IRAP project, and Servier will get an exclusive option to license the IRAP program once agreed research milestones have been met.

IRAP is a novel target for the therapeutic treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. The role of IRAP in memory was originally identified at the Florey Institute by Siew Yeen Chai, now at Monash University, while subsequent work in collaboration with Michael Parker of St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research has shown that inhibitors of IRAP may potentially have disease modifying effects in Alzheimer’s disease.