Catalent, Jupiter sign manufacturing agreement for mid-stage Parkinson’s trial

Pharma company Jupiter Neurosciences announced it has entered into an agreement with contract development and manufacturing Catalent to produce Jupiter’s softgel capsules to support its upcoming Phase 2a clinical trial in Parkinson’s disease.

Under the agreement, Catalent will manufacture clinical batches — including both active and placebo batches for the Parkinson’s study — of JOTROL, Jupiter’s proprietary resveratrol-based therapeutic, using an optimized softgel formulation.

The mid-stage clinical trial will evaluate the safety/tolerability as well as pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of JOTROL, which is designed to overcome the challenges of resveratrol by significantly enhancing bioavailability while minimizing gastrointestinal side effects.

Jupiter said that resveratrol is one of the world’s most extensively researched molecules and JOTROL is an enhanced orally administered formulation. The company conducted a phase 1 study demonstrating that JOTROL achieves over nine times higher bioavailability compared to resveratrol used in earlier clinical trials, according to the announcement.

“Securing an experienced CDMO leader like Catalent is a critical step as we advance JOTROL into clinical development for Parkinson’s disease,” Jupiter CEO Christer Rosén said in a statement. “Catalent’s industry-leading expertise in pharmaceutical manufacturing and its ability to scale production efficiently according to a tight timeline will help us maintain momentum in our development program and support our goal of delivering innovative therapies to patients.”