Advancing Treatments for ALS and Neurodegenerative Diseases
EnClear Therapies is developing device-based systems to reduce or stop the progression of neurodegenerative diseases by eliminating the toxic proteins known to drive the underlying pathology of disease. EnClear’s initial focus is on ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and related disease groups such as PSP (Progressive Supranuclear palsy).
ALS, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, came into mainstream view in 2014 when the ice bucket challenge blew up the internet and attracted everyone from pop celebrities to Bill Gates to participate and raise money for awareness and research. In total, this challenge helped the ALS Association generate over $220M in donations and over 2.4 million tags on Facebook. The organization announced that their goal was to keep running this challenge every year until a cure for ALS is found.
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, which leads to muscle degeneration and problems with mobility. This muscle and nerve damage usually progresses over 2–5 years and typically leads to death from respiratory failure when the lungs become paralyzed. Despite extensive research and fundraising efforts, there are currently only 4 FDA approved drugs to manage symptoms and slow down its progression. With approximately 5,000 people diagnosed with this debilitating disease every year and someone getting diagnosed with or passing away from ALS every 90 minutes, developments in this area have become more important than ever.
While there is no cure yet, our portfolio company EnClear Therapies is developing a ground-breaking treatment strategy for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. EnClear targets toxic protein build up in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) of ALS patients that are known drivers of the disease. The central nervous system is bathed in a liquid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which is how these toxic proteins get distributed to neurons around the body. When these toxic proteins are spread to motor neurons, it causes them to malfunction, leading to the deadly symptoms that come along with the progression of the disease, such as muscle paralysis.
There is currently nothing out there that filters the CSF and breaks down the target protein enough to provide therapeutic value. EnClear changes this with their patented technology that is able to access, break down, and remove the toxic proteins.
There are two main problems EnClear effectively tackles that allow them to accomplish this:
- They can access CSF to target specific toxic proteins and enzymatically break them down.
- Their system is able to penetrate the blood brain barrier, a common obstacle for many other treatment methods, in order to deliver the filtered CSF back into the neuronal system.
EnClear’s technology will stop or significantly slow down neuronal degeneration due to the spread of toxic proteins, drastically improving quality of life and disease prognosis for ALS patients.
No alternative therapies currently exist, making this a breakthrough in neurodegenerative disease treatment. EnClear’s recently raised a $10 million Series A round from experienced healthcare investors such as 20/20 HealthCare Partners (“20/20 HCP”), Thiel Capital, Amgen Ventures, GHS Fund (Quark Venture LP and GF Securities), Christian Angermayer’s Presight Capital, Dolby Ventures, and Bioverge.
While ALS, Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), as well as Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) will be the initial focuses for EnClear, their team plans on expanding their treatment strategy to target many other diseases to the multi-billion dollar neurodegenerative disease market including Alziemers, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and more. Their revolutionary technology has the potential to monopolize the space and change the lives of patients and their families.
