London, October 20th, 2025 - Pangea Bio, a company developing transformative medicines for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, has been awarded a $1M grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) to advance one of their next-generation TrkB activators for Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Parkinson’s disease (PD) constitutes a large unmet medical need posing a huge disease burden to patients. Current approved pharmacotherapies are largely focused on symptomatic relief with no impact on the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons.
This funding, part of MJFF’s Therapeutics Pipeline Program, will support Pangea Bio’s next-generation small molecule TrkB activators. These compounds show compelling in vitro and in vivo pharmacology data, including significant efficacy in a range of cellular models investigating neuronal survival and neuroplasticity endpoints. The compounds also display excellent drug characteristics including high oral bioavailability, brain penetration and solubility. MJFF funding provides the opportunity to progress through further in vitro and in vivo activities in PD relevant models, as well as in-depth compound characterization and manufacturing activities. Pangea Bio aims to generate a strong data package enabling progression of a lead candidate towards clinical trials as a neuroprotective treatment for PD.
Dr. Alleyn Plowright, Chief Scientific Officer at Pangea Bio, commented: “We are honored to receive this grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which will support the continued advancement of our next-generation TrkB activators. These compounds hold strong potential to provide transformative medicines to improve the lives of people living with Parkinson’s disease.”
Pangea Bio’s CEO, Lars Wilde, said: “This grant is a testament to the great potential of TrkB modulation and promising characteristics of our next generation small molecule TrkB activators. We are grateful for the generous support of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. This funding will allow us to accelerate the development of one of our lead candidates, which we believe could bring meaningful benefits to individuals affected by Parkinson’s disease.”
“The Michael J. Fox Foundation continues its pursuit of our singular mission to accelerate the development of improved therapies and a cure for Parkinson’s disease,” said Jessica Tome Garcia, PhD, MJFF’s lead scientific program manager. “The work of Pangea Bio exemplifies the Foundation’s commitment to advancing novel, disease-modifying approaches. Their next-generation TrkB activators represent a compelling strategy to protect and restore brain cells, and we will support the critical preclinical work needed to move these promising candidates closer to the clinic.”
