Benzinga | Mar 9, 2021 09:17AM EST

Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation And PTC Therapeutics Announce Collaboration To Advance Drug Discovery And Development Research In Regenerative Medicine; Financial Details Not Disclosed

NEW YORK and SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J., March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation and PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTCT) have entered into a new collaboration focused on regenerative medicine to further advance scientific research in SMA and other neuromuscular disorders with the goal of developing new treatments. SMA is a severe, inherited, progressive neuromuscular disease that causes devastating muscle atrophy and disease-related complications. The availability of several disease-modifying therapies for SMA has made regenerative interventions the next frontier in drug discovery and development. The SMA Foundation--PTC partnership will provide funding, managed by the SMA Foundation, to academic institutions and other collaborators to advance foundational research in the area of regenerative medicine.

"In neuromuscular disease, correcting the underlying cause is just the first step. Patients need therapies to help restore lost function. We are excited to expand our partnership with PTC Therapeutics to empower researchers to address this therapeutic gap in neuromuscular disorders with an emphasis on SMA," said Loren Eng, President, The SMA Foundation. "Our longstanding partnership with PTC lets us harness our research capabilities and PTC's drug discovery and development expertise and access to core technology platforms, all of which supported the recent approval of EvrysdiTM (risdiplam) in SMA. We look forward to our initial funding of new projects under the collaboration with PTC."

"We have had an extremely productive partnership with the SMA Foundation for well over a decade and are excited to continue this collaboration to investigate regenerative medicine to find new therapies for patients with SMA and other neuromuscular disorders," said Stuart W. Peltz, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of PTC Therapeutics. "The SMA Foundation has been the leader in supporting SMA research and we look forward to doing the critical work to accelerate the next generation of therapeutics for these patients."