Biomedicine researchers’ company receives DKK 20 million for muscular research
Three Danish foundations are investing millions of Danish kroner in the biotech company NMD Pharma, which was founded by Ole Bækgaard Nielsen, Thomas Holm Pedersen and Claus Olesen from the Department of Biomedicine. The goal is to develop medicine that can treat incurable neuromuscular diseases. The grant will also benefit the department.
15 years of basic muscular research has now been brought into play outside the walls of the university via the three researchers and their company NMD Pharma, which they founded a couple of years ago on the basis of positive laboratory results. They hope to be able to develop new medicine for people who are affected by neuromuscular diseases such as the fatal disease ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a disease that paralyses the muscles because the nerve cells controlling muscle movement fail and perish.
The hope of finding a medical treatment that can make patient’s muscles function again and perhaps even extend their life is shared by the Lundbeck Foundation Emerge, Novo Seeds and CAPNOVA, who have provided the substantial funding to ensure work can continue. However, any actual form of treatment still lies a long way in the future, since the method is not yet ready to be tested on humans.
The researchers will continue to work part-time at the Department of Biomedicine, which makes equipment and premises available in return for a cooperation agreement that also provides the university with revenue from the project. This makes the project a good example of the collaboration between the university and business and industry that Claus Olesen, who also acts as one of Health's industrial ambassadors, has the task of promoting.
Further information
Professor Ole Bækgaard Nielsen
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Direct tel.: (+45) 8716 7714
Mobile: (+45) 6020 2674
obn@biomed.au.dk