Rigshospitalet and Lundbeck announce partnership to find new ways to treat brain diseases

Lundbeck enters a new partnership with the Department of Neurosurgery (Afdeling for Hjerne- og Nervekirurgi) at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, which will provide new insights into how molecules enter the brain. The partnership gives researchers an opportunity to study fluids surrounding the brain to learn which compounds enter the brain and how they are distributed. The project is basic research, with a view to making the results widely available.

“We hope to find new paths in brain research that can pave the way for future treatments by combining the expertise of Rigshospitalet and Lundbeck. The blood-brain-barrier protects our brain in everyday life, but when the brain is affected by disease, the barrier suddenly becomes an obstacle for medicines to enter the brain. With this collaboration, we hope to take the next step in developing novel drug candidates that can find their way through the brain barrier to treat a number of diseases and conditions in the brain,” says Mads Dalsgaard, Senior Vice President for Experimental Medicine and Clinical Development at Lundbeck.

There is a need for validated methods that prove how much of a drug gets through the blood-brain-barrier and into the brain, and where it can have a beneficial treatment effect. It is this challenge that the collaboration will try to solve.