Omeros and The Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center Enter into a Collaboration Agreement to Evaluate Novel Target for the Treatment of Movement...( SEATTLE and SUNNYVALE Calif. Sept...),Health

SEATTLE and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Omeros Corporation and The Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center today announced that they have entered into a collaboration to evaluate a novel target, proprietary to Omeros, for the treatment of movement disorders. The collaboration is based on Omeros' discovery and prior validation of a previously unknown link between this molecular target in the brain and movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS).

"We believe that the data from our earlier studies are the first to establish a link between our target and any movement disorder," stated Gregory A. Demopulos, M.D., Chairman and CEO of Omeros. "We are very pleased that The Parkinson's Institute and Dr. Langston, leaders in the field of Parkinson's disease, have chosen to work with Omeros to generate additional evidence for the potential clinical benefits of therapeutics directed to our proprietary target."

Under the collaboration, Omeros and The Parkinson's Institute will conduct laboratory studies of one or more compounds that block Omeros' proprietary target in a widely used and highly predictive model for the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson's disease. Omeros' earlier studies conducted at Emory University by Gary W. Miller, Ph.D. in a similar model showed that compounds blocking this target were as effective as levodopamine, or L-DOPA, the standard treatment for Parkinson's disease for nearly 40 years, at doses 50- to 100-times lower than those of L-DOPA. L-DOPA is also associated with side effects including dyskinesias, hallucinations, sleep disorders and cognitive impairment.

"Omeros' experimental data are the first that I have ever seen to show efficacy equivalent to that of L-DOPA," said Dr. J. William Langston, Scientific Director and Founder of The Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center. "Based on the potential for lower dosing and the proposed mechanism of action for Omeros' tar
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