IWT supports reMYND in developing a cure for Type 1 Diabetes

reMYND NV today announced that it has received a grant from IWT, the Flemish agency for Innovation by Science and Technology, to assess the potential of its Diabetes program in curing Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM).

reMYND develops disease-modifying treatment for patients suffering from protein-misfolding disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and Huntington’s. With ample support from IWT over the last years, reMYND’s diabetes program has demonstrated not only to halt the further degeneration of the pancreas in animal models of T2DM, but even to improve the own natural insulin production by β-cells in pancreatic islets.

In addition, the treatment has shown to protect human islets in a test tube against toxic stress. While T2DM, also called adult onset diabetes, is caused by a combination of increased insulin resistance and decreased insulin production, T1DM is specifically caused by decreased insulin production as the β-cells in the pancreas are being attacked and die, typically at a young age.

Hence, the data obtained in T2DM models and human islets suggest that reMYND’s diabetes treatment might be able to cure T1DM, provided the intervention comes early enough. reMYND will now embark on a project to assess such potential in animal models of T1DM with the financial support from IWT.

Commenting on the grant, Gerard Griffioen, CSO of reMYND said: “For a company like ours, it is important to embark on new avenues. It is great to see how IWT remains supportive to facilitate innovation at the early stage after which we can bring drug development programs forward by our own means or through the more classical funding channels.”

Tine Hectors, Project-leader Diabetes at reMYND added: “Currently, patients with T1DM are dependent upon administering external insulin several times a day from an early age on. We feel we could make a major difference to those patients if we could restore their own insulin production, even if we still have a long way to go before we can translate any positive data we might find into clinical practice.”

For more information, please contact 
Koen De Witte
Managing Director 
koen.de.witte@remynd.com

Download the press release