Vivreon Biosciences Awarded Grant from Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation

SAN DIEGO - Sept. 22, 2016 - PRLog -- Vivreon Biosciences, LLC has been awarded a preclinical drug discovery grant from the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), a nonprofit organization established in 1998 to provide funding to scientists conducting promising, innovative Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug research.

"We are very pleased to announce this exciting collaboration between Vivreon Biosciences and the ADDF.  The approval of this peer-reviewed grant demonstrates the quality of Vivreon Biosciences' research capabilities and commitment to find a treatment for the root cause of AD," said Milton Greenberg, PhD, the principal investigator on the grant and Vice President of Drug Discovery for Vivreon Biosciences. "We will use these funds to improve our compounds with the goal of advancing them into AD human clinical trials."

Recent evidence suggests that chronic inflammation in the brain plays a major role in AD initiation and pathogenesis. Vivreon joins a handful of companies attempting to target this inflammation, which is a hallmark of AD and many other neurodegenerative diseases. Specifically, by targeting microglia, a special type of brain-resident immune cell that can become pathogenic during disease, Vivreon hopes to shut down neuroinflammation at its source, while maintaining beneficial phagocytic functions in these cells.

"The neuroinflammation program is the second largest in our research portfolio and we are excited about the potential of Vivreon's therapeutic approach," said Howard Fillit, MD, Founding Executive Director and Chief Science Officer of ADDF.

"Vivreon utilizes an accelerated development program by combining exceptionally low overhead, world-expert collaborations, innovative technology, and fast-tracked FDA mechanisms for early-stage AD," said Ed Rudnic, PhD, CEO of Vivreon Biosciences. "This award from the ADDF will be used to bolster our efforts and we hope to continue this collaboration with the ADDF well into the future."

Founded in 1998, the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) is dedicated to rapidly accelerating the discovery of drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer's disease. To learn more, please visit: www.alzdiscovery.org.

Vivreon Biosciences, LLC was founded in 2014 in San Diego, CA. Vivreon is developing a number of oral immune therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases. For more information, please visit www.vivreonbiosciences.com.