Cerebral Therapeutics Advances Neurological Science and Patient Outcomes
By: Colorado BioScience Association Date: 01/25/2021
Cerebral Therapeutics is dedicated to improving the lives of patients living with uncontrolled neurological diseases, with an initial focus on refractory epilepsy. The company is addressing chronic neurological diseases using novel and proprietary drugs administered directly to the fluid around the brain. With a newly launched Phase 2b study, Cerebral credits its mission-driven culture and strong relationships with scientists and clinicians at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus as critical to the company’s success.
CBSA President & CEO, Jennifer Jones Paton, asked Dan Abrams, M.D., Cerebral Therapeutics’ Chief Executive Officer, CBSA’s Key Questions for Life Sciences Innovators.
Q: Tell us about your company or organization.
A: Cerebral Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the lives of patients with severe refractory epilepsy and other neurological diseases.
Currently residing at Fitzsimons Innovation Community, we were founded in February of 2018 by experts in the fields of neurology, neurosurgery, and drug delivery. Cerebral Therapeutics is pioneering the development of precise targeted delivery of medications to the central nervous system. The goal of this novel approach is to maximize efficacy while greatly reducing systemic drug exposure and enhancing drug regimen compliance.
Q: Describe your team culture. How does your culture shape what your company or organization produces or offers?
A: We are a scientific, entrepreneurial, mission-driven, and patient-focused company. We are passionate about making a meaningful difference inpatients’ lives by developing drug therapies for unmet needs.
Q: What are you working on right now?
A: We are launching our Phase 2 study of intracerebroventricular drug delivery of the anti-seizure medication CT-010 in patients with medically refractory epilepsy.
We have sites in Australia and Israel with plans for expansion to the United States in 2021 for which our company will need to continue to grow and support this effort.
Q: How will your work save or change lives?
A: Our intracerebroventricular infusion therapy is designed to offer amore efficacious and reliable approach to treating severe neurological diseases, including medically refractory epilepsy, for which oral medications are not able to achieve adequate control and/or are limited by systemic toxicities. We aim to save and improve lives of patients.
Q: How has COVID-19 impacted your company or organization?
A: The reduced access to hospitals and physicians has impacted enrollment in our clinical studies, requiring greater emphasis on expanding the number of countries and sites where our clinical studies are conducted.
Q: CBSA champions a collaborative life sciences ecosystem because we are#stongertogether. How has being an active participant in our life sciences community supported your success?
A: Colorado’s life sciences community contributes to our positive and useful collaborations. Especially useful is our proximity to the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science, and Center for Neuroscience (including Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry). In particular, the epilepsy group within the Department of Neurology (Dr. Mark Spitz), the formulation group at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy (Dr. Tom Anchordoquy) and the chairs in the departments of Neurosurgery (Dr. Lillehei) and Psychiatry (Dr. Epperson) have excellent reputations and are mission-driven collaborators.
We chose Fitzsimons Innovation Community to run our brain drug therapy development business because it is a widely respected scientific and clinical community.
Thank you to our sponsor: