QR Pharma and UCLA Awarded $3 Million USARMY Grant to Test Posiphen in Rat Models of Concussion and Blunt Head Trauma

BERWYN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

QR Pharma, Inc. (QR) is a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company committed to developing therapeutics with novel approaches for the treatment of cognitive impairment after acute brain injury like concussions, head trauma and stroke or in chronic degeneration like Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease. QR and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) announce today they received a US Army grant in the amount of $3,000,000 to study Posiphen in two models of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

We are extremely pleased to receive this funding from the USARMY, said Maria Maccecchini, PhD, CEO of QR Pharma. It enables us to continue our work with traumatic brain injury and hopefully stop the neurological damage that is the consequence of these devastating injuries. It also provides the resources necessary to progress our drug development and validates the scientific approach we have taken.

Our collaborators Drs. Marie-Francoise Chesselet and David Hovda at UCLA have used TBI injury models to study brain trauma. Their models produce cognitive impairment, as assessed in the Morris Water Maze, and increase expression of tau, p-tau, APP, A and alpha-synuclein in the brain.

Professor Marie-Francoise Chesselet, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Neurobiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. David Hovda has received the armys highest civilian honor, the Strength of the Nation Award for his work on developing treatment approaches for TBI. He is also past President of both the National and International Neurotrauma Society and is Director of an NINDS funded Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC).

About Posiphen: QR's lead compound, Posiphen, is a small orally active compound with high blood brain barrier permeability. It has been shown in cell cultures and in a number of mice models to reduce and normalize the synthesis of amyloid- precursor protein (APP) and A, tau and phospho-tau as well as alpha-synuclein; proteins that are all elevated in the injured brain and that have all been shown to kill nerve cells. Since these neurotoxic proteins cause inflammation in the brain, lowering their levels reduces inflammatory factors and inflammation.

About QR Pharma, Inc. Headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, QR Pharma, Inc. is a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company committed to developing therapeutics with novel approaches for the treatment of cognitive impairment in neurological disorders. QR is currently developing Posiphen as a disease modifying drug for acute as well as chronic neurodegeneration and BNC for advanced Alzheimer's disease. For more information on QR Pharma, please visit the company's website, http://www.qrpharma.com.

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QR Pharma and UCLA Awarded $3 Million USARMY Grant to Test Posiphen in Rat Models of Concussion and Blunt Head Trauma