The CEOSA biotechnology firm Advancell, (See “Así somos” No. 51 and 66), leader in
nanomedicine research and cellular methods for in vitro research, whose products and services seek to meet as yet unresolved needs in health and welfare, has joined forces with Neurotec Pharma and Aromics in a new Economic Interest Grouping, MSALS, to develop a new treatment for multiple sclerosis, an auto-immune, inflammatory and degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system, for which an effective treatment has yet to be found. 
These three leading biotechnology firms promote their new initiative from the Barcelona Scientific Park, with the support of the Catalan Regional Government   through ACC1Ó, which funds part of the project through the Technological Innovation Nucleus programme, which supports business projects with an R+D differential and is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, within the framework of the Catalan Regional Competitiveness and Occupation Operational Programme 2007-2013. MSALS also has the clinical coordination support of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, as well as the cooperation of Barcelona University-IDIBAPS.

An Important Challenge
Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory and degenerative disease that affects 30,000 people in Spain and around 2.5 million people in the world. This anti-immune illness occurs mainly in young adults (and mostly women) between the ages of 20 and 50, and seriously affects the central nervous system, resulting in a loss of sensitivity and balance and leading to speech difficulties, distortion and loss of sight, muscle rigidness, fatigue and paralysis, among other symptoms. In fact, 15 years after diagnosis of the disease, 50 percent of patients are unable to walk. It represents the second cause of permanent disability after traffic accidents and around 10 percent of those affected die from it or its complications.

The drugs currently used to treat multiple sclerosis are immune-modulators, which have serious side effects, a limited effect and require ‘parenteral’ administration (intravenous or below the skin), which makes treatment difficult. The importance of the new treatment, known as NT-KO-003, with proven anti-inflammatory and neuroprotection effects in animal models, which unlike traditional drugs, does not have an immune-suppressor effect and hence can be combined with other drugs, where necessary, without increasing its toxicity and it can be administered to almost all multiple sclerosis patients.  Researchers believe that this is the first treatment capable of slowing down the progression of the illness and reducing related neurological damage and it can also be administered orally rather than only by parenteral means. Clinical trials will begin in the first quarter of 2011 with a total of 100 patients with multiple sclerosis in ten Spanish hospitals and a further three in Germany.