Biotechs, BIA, patient charities and investors: the power of relationships

In this blog, NRG Therapeutics co-founder and CEO Dr Neil Miller (NM), a medicinal chemist with a background in pharma and biotech R&D, and Parkinson’s UK Director of Research (and Special Advisor on Parkinson’s and Investor Observer to NRG), Professor David Dexter (DD), explore the history of the relationship and the innovation journey to date. 

In 2018, the BIA’s charity of the year was Parkinson’s UK, which had just launched a novel model in funding for early-stage Parkinson’s drug development and discovery with commercial potential, called the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech. Shortly after, BIA member NRG Therapeutics secured investment from the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech for its early concept idea to develop CNS-penetrant inhibitors of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) to restore mitochondrial health, as a treatment for Parkinson’s and, later, other neurodegenerative diseases. 

This follows NRG Therapeutics’ £50 million series B funding round and the company's plans for its first-in-human studies, having now attracted more than £75 million in grants and equity funding. 

Tell us about NRG’s origins and its drug development concept

NM: Our story began almost 20 years ago, when I was working at GSK in Singapore, where I met our CSO, Richard Rutter, a brilliant pharmacologist. During our respective careers in pharma, we each gained invaluable insights and experience in drug discovery and neurodegeneration. We had met our COO, Grant Hawthorne, an experienced finance entrepreneur, as the leadership team at a start-up biotech company looking for new antibiotics to address the challenge of AMR. This was an important mission, but sadly, as often happens in drug discovery, these promising antibacterial drugs failed to progress beyond pre-clinical research, so we looked for our next challenge as a team.

We co-founded NRG in 2018. It wasn’t a university spin-out and we had no IP – it was a concept based on our understanding of potentially tractable disease pathways in neurodegeneration, and some new biology from the literature around the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in Parkinson’s. My father died of a form of Parkinson’s in early 2018, so I knew the challenges patients and their families face and was keen to pursue new treatments that could modify the disease and improve lives.

NRG is both an acronym of the founder’s names (Neil, Richard, Grant) and a phonetic form of ‘energy’. The use of the first letter of first names to form our company name reflects the combination of our skills and expertise, and our philosophy of teamwork. NRG or ‘energy’ reflects our focus on mitochondria, the batteries or energy-producing units in cells.

Our vision was and remains to use our unique insights in neuroscience, mitochondrial biology and drug discovery to develop transformative treatments for people living with neurodegenerative disorders.

...and the history of Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech?

DD: The Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech was conceived in 2017. Parkinson's UK had been funding research into drug development through our grant schemes for many, many years. But we found that pharma was pulling back from neuroscience drug discovery and innovations were dying on the bench rather than getting into the hands of patients, due to a lack of seed and early-stage funding. Hence, we stepped in to fund and de-risk projects so they could be partnered at a later stage.

Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech is itself an innovative drug development platform. In addition to funding, we provide a vital patient perspective. For example, when projects approach clinical trials, they can have the patient input so that the design of the trial is favourable. We also have medicinal chemists and biologists who can provide scientific guidance.

Today the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech is a global collaboration with the Parkinson’s Foundation and we have 11 projects in the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech pipeline. Some are in the clinic: phase I all the way through to phase III; and some are in preclinical development, at various stages. NRG was one of the earliest projects we backed.

Being the BIA charity of the year in 2018 really helped raise awareness of Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech in our formative years. It opened doors and built relationships – for example, Mission Therapeutics that we’re funding came to us through the BIA relationship. Relationships are so important in our industry.

How did NRG and Parkinson’s UK come together?

NM: In mid-2018, NRG was introduced to Parkinson’s UK through a personal contact from my pharma days, Alan Naylor, who was on Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech’s Drug Discovery Advisory Panel. We quickly established a good relationship with Jan Kulagowski and Arthur Roach, who was then Director of Research at Parkinson’s UK and leading the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech.

A year later, following some refinements to our business plan, Parkinson’s UK backed us, via its Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech, with £1 million in seed finance to support our drug discovery plans. This early support was crucial. Parkinson’s UK recognised the potential therapeutic value of the novel mitochondrial biology we were pursuing in Parkinson’s and, importantly, they believed in the NRG founding team. The Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech funded the company when others perceived the risk as being too high, and its endorsement has helped us secure multiple grant awards and investment from mainstream healthcare investors. Its seed funding enabled the development of our initial chemical matter, which formed the basis of our IP, and the groundwork on which we developed our lead development candidate, NRG5051.

DD: We were convinced by NRG’s concept and especially the new biology around the mPTP from Professor Sonia Gandhi’s group at UCL/The Crick Institute, which had been published in Nature in 2018, that provided a direct link to Parkinson’s. I was personally interested in this science, as mitochondrial health had been an area I had studied in my own research.

I am thus thrilled that one of the earliest projects we supported through our Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech is now progressing to clinical trials. It’s particularly exciting that initial data will be gathered both in people living with Parkinson’s and a second indication, ALS/MND, for whom there is a significant need for new and improved treatments.

Have any other charities supported the company?

NM: Yes, we have received substantial support from The Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF), which helped us deconvolute and validate the molecular target through which our molecules inhibit opening of the mPTP and subsequently to progress NRG5051 through IND-enabling studies.

More recently, Target ALS and The ALS Association have backed key elements of our ALS/MND research. We were also very grateful for the timely support from Innovate UK’s Biomedical Catalyst which helped us bridge between seed funding and Series A and continue lead optimisation.

When did you attract mainstream healthcare venture investors into NRG for your series A?

NM: We had made tremendous progress in our science. We had generated a novel series of orally bioavailable and, importantly, CNS-penetrant mPTP inhibitors that we had protected through patent filings. We had also made important discoveries to better understand the molecular target of our small molecules and their mode of action. Independently, a team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Australia, led by Professor Seth Masters, had identified a novel pathological mechanism in ALS which was sensitive to mPTP inhibition; this led to a long-standing research collaboration with his lab and opened up an additional therapeutic indication for us. By mid-2022 we had a pipeline of disease modifying drug candidates that aimed to restore mitochondrial function and slow or halt the progression of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and ALS/MND.

Funding from Parkinson’s UK, MJFF and Innovate UK has enabled us to generate a data package attractive to mainstream investors.

It was through Arthur Roach, former Research Director at Parkinson’s UK, that we were introduced to Claudio Nessi at Omega Funds. We were not the typical Omega Funds investment, but having the backing of Parkinson’s UK brought strong validation of our therapeutic hypothesis, which, combined with exciting preclinical data, convinced them to invest. Alongside Omega Funds and Parkinson’s UK, an Australian VC, Brandon Capital, joined the series A round, which raised £16 million by late 2022. Brandon had been investors in the NRG’s co-founders’ previous company, yet again underlining the importance of trust in relationships.

When did you believe you really had something that could become a disease-modifying therapy to treat patients?

NM: We nominated our first development candidate, NRG5051, in 2024 and have now progressed it through IND-enabling studies.

Over the last 18 months, we have built a compelling in vivo efficacy data package in rodent models of Parkinson’s and ALS/MND, that has validated the mechanism we are targeting and demonstrated the therapeutic potential of NRG5051. We are particularly excited by the reduction in neurofilament light (NfL), the clinically validated fluid biomarker of neurodegeneration, that we observe.

Along the way, Parkinson’s UK has provided invaluable exposure to patients. I met with its Involvement Steering Group and also presented at the annual Parkinson’s UK Research Lecture. It was at this event that I met members of the Movers and Shakers, a group of influential journalists raising awareness of and advocating to government on Parkinson’s (listen to my podcast conversation).

DD: From our initial investment in 2019 to nurture this idea, to its anticipated entry into clinical trials in early 2026, its recent series B funding success highlights the vital role of our seed funding and of the insights and relationships we can bring to a project. Our innovative approach ensures promising ideas for new treatments are de-risked and accelerated along the research pipeline, bringing them closer to people with Parkinson's, sooner.

As Helen George, who is living with Parkinson's and a member of the Parkinson's Virtual Biotech Involvement group, said: 

To hear that the NRG drug is progressing into clinical trials is truly brilliant news. It feels like that small pinprick of hope is shining a little brighter. While it’s important to stay realistic, it’s incredibly encouraging to see treatments being developed that target the root causes of Parkinson’s. This gives us all a reason to keep hoping.

Where is NRG today?

NM: Over our seven-year journey, we have attracted over £75 million in financing, including backing by a strong international syndicate of experienced life science investors: Brandon Capital, British Business Bank, Criteria Bio Ventures, Dementia Discovery Fund, M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund and Omega Funds, as well as Parkinson’s UK, through the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech.

We closed our £50 million series B funding in 2025 on the back of a compelling preclinical data package in both ALS and Parkinson’s disease models. We are at a pivotal point in our history as we prepare to enter human clinical trials within the next six months. We have sufficient funds to complete a phase 2 proof of concept clinical trial in MND/ALS by the end of 2028, as well as generate meaningful clinical data in Parkinson’s through a Phase 1b study.

DD: We remain an active founding investor, with an observer seat on NRG’s board. I am delighted to act as a special advisor on Parkinson’s and will continue to support the company's progress. Its recent financing and near-term plans to enter clinical trials highlight the transformative role that our investment can have, by supporting ideas at an early stage and to then make them less risky for other investors to help take them forward. 

The project with NRG has been a great example of how a project works well, and we are using that valuable learning to help steer our future strategy. We are open to funding new projects, with a likely focus on the early stage, where we can make the most impact.

Any final thoughts on NRG’s potential and the future?

NM: There has been a resurgence in interest in finding new treatments for neurological conditions, as the population ages and disease incidence and impact increases. We remain as passionate as ever about finding new treatments that offer hope and could change the lives of millions. Our quest to progress our novel drug candidates into clinic trials and to find partners with the same passion and development and commercialisation expertise remains undeterred.

We think our approach can also be applied to other neurodegenerative diseases such as frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Friedreich’s ataxia, and potentially in a number of peripheral indications.

The reward for those who partner with and invest in us will be getting our drugs to patients.