NeuroVive takes a 10% stake in partner Isomerase

Swedish drug developer NeuroVive Pharmaceutical is cozying up to R&D partner Isomerase Therapeutics, buying a stake in the company as the two move together on a CNS project.

Under the agreement, NeuroVive is swapping more than 700,000 of its own shares for 5% of Isomerase with plans to pay £550,000 ($791,000). The idea, NeuroVive said, is to make sure the pair's collaborations "remain a key priority for Isomerase."

Through a deal signed last year, the two companies are at work on NVP014, an early-stage treatment designed to protect brain cells in cases of stroke. The two are also pursuing discovery-stage projects in hopes of generating more preclinical candidates.

NeuroVive is working to rebuild some value after its lead program, CicloMulsion, failed in a Phase III heart attack trial last fall. CEO Mikael Brönnegård left the company days later, and NeuroVive has since refocused its pipeline.

- read the statement