Leucadia Therapeutics’ medical device, Arethusa, restores cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage across the cribriform plate to prevent toxic metabolites from accumulating in the brain. It has the potential to reverse early Alzheimer’s disease and help hundreds of millions of people.
Over the past few years, Leucadia laid the foundation for a clinical trial by rewriting the (anatomical) book on cribriform plate biology, established that CSF egress slows with age, and showed that blocking the cribriform plates of ferrets induced a syndrome similar to early Alzheimer’s disease. This work provided conclusive evidence that cribriform plate blockage is an apical mechanism in Alzheimer’s disease.
We will begin clinical trials of Arethusa in California, followed by more sites in the US, Canada, the EU, UK, Japan, and Korea. Regulatory approval of medical devices is significantly faster and an order of magnitude cheaper than drug trials.