Motor neurone disease is a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease. Credit: The University of Melbourne.

A team of researchers led by Australia’s Macquarie University professor Dominic Rowe and Calvary Health Care Bethlehem associate professor Susan Mathers has reported positive results from a trial that evaluated CuATSM for the treatment of motor neurone disease (MND) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

MND is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease that leads to muscle weakness and eventually paralysis.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Go deeper with GlobalData

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Discover B2B Marketing That Performs

Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.

Find out more

Results demonstrated that CuATSM improved lung function and cognitive ability in patients compared to those treated with existing standard-of-care and was found to have slowed motor disability in patients.

CuATSM has reportedly also improved clinical symptoms of the disease and delayed the overall deterioration of MND patients within six months.

“This is the first human evidence for a disease-modifying drug for motor neurone disease.”

Collaborative Medicinal Development, with support from FightMND, has sponsored the trial.

The study featured a dose-finding design and enrolled 32 patients.

GlobalData Strategic Intelligence

US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?

Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.

By GlobalData

Collaborative Medicinal Development chief scientific officer Ashley Bush said: “This is the first human evidence for a disease-modifying drug for motor neurone disease.

“It is a huge breakthrough, and we look forward to confirming the positive results in a larger study soon.”

The researchers involved in the motor neurone disease trial intend to start enrolment for a larger, randomised, placebo-controlled double-blind Phase II trial of CuATSM this year.

This trial will be designed to investigate the effectiveness of CuATSM in motor neurone disease in a larger patient group.

CuATSM is created by scientists at Australia’s Florey Institute of Neuroscience, and University of Melbourne School of Chemistry and Bio21 Institute.

Collaborative Medicinal Development secured the licence of the drug for use in human clinical studies.

Clinical Trials Arena Excellence Awards - Nominations Closed

Nominations are now closed for the Clinical Trials Arena Excellence Awards. A big thanks to all the organisations that entered – your response has been outstanding, showcasing exceptional innovation, leadership, and impact.

Excellence in Action
YPrime won the Innovation award for AI in Clinical Trials and the Environmental award for Sustainable Trials, thanks to its eCOA, IRT and eConsent platforms. Explore how purpose-built AI, paperless workflows and circular hardware practices are reshaping timelines, data quality and ESG performance in clinical research.

Discover the Impact