Many neurological therapies exhibit dose-limiting side effects, and numerous neurological disease targets remain undruggable because of on-target off-tissue peripheral side effects or toxicities. Montara's BrainOnly™ is a versatile platform designed to prevent peripheral side effects and concentrate neurological drugs' activity in the brain, enhancing safety, therapeutic index, and efficacy. Based on research from the Shokat Lab at UCSF, BrainOnly is broadly applicable with existing or novel small molecule inhibitors and activators targeting neurodegenerative and neurological diseases and brain cancers. SAN FRANCISCO, July 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Montara Therapeutics, Inc. (‘Montara'), a therapeutics company aiming to revolutionize the discovery and development of brain-targeting drugs, announced today the closing of an oversubscribed $8 million seed financing led by SV Health Investors' Dementia Discovery Fund and co-lead Two Bear Capital. Dolby Family Ventures and KdT Ventures also participated in the round. Therapeutics for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and brain cancers must penetrate the blood-brain barrier and be active against the target at the disease site. However, many promising drug candidates fail to advance due to dose-limiting on-target off-tissue peripheral side effects or toxicities that compromise both safety and efficacy. These brain diseases remain among the most significant unmet medical needs with many important targets still considered undruggable. To address this challenge, Montara is pioneering BrainOnly, a platform designed to prevent on-target off-tissue peripheral side effects or toxicities of existing and novel drugs to make best-in-class and first-in-class therapies. "The unmet medical needs of patients with neurodegenerative and neurologic diseases and brain cancers are staggering. It's well understood that uncontrolled peripheral side effects or toxicities associated with brain-targeting drugs are often the barrier to promising treatments. We hope to eliminate this obstacle with our BrainOnly platform, unlocking many previously undruggable neurological targets and delivering a new generation of neuroscience drugs that bring hope to patients and their families," said Nicholas T. Hertz, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Montara. "This seed funding provides a critical springboard to advance our internal pipeline toward the clinic and also enable future partnerships." How the BrainOnly Platform Works The BrainOnly platform enables the development of two-drug combination therapies comprising a brain-penetrant target-specific drug and a non-brain penetrant "universal" peripheral blocker. Montara's novel approach blocks the drug's activity in the periphery while simultaneously activating and concentrating its activity in the brain. A two-drug combination approach has been clinically validated for Parkinson's disease by one approved pair, carbidopa and levodopa, with additional programs in development. However, until Montara, there has been no ...