For the last three years, Link Medicine, a Cambridge, MA startup has been investigating new therapies for neuro-degenerative diseases, such as, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).  It has also managed to raise $40 million from Ventures, a Cambridge and San Francisco-based fund that focused on life science companies and SV Life Sciences, a Boston, San Francisco and London based biotech-oriented fund, for testing a new Alzheimer’s drug.  Beginning next year, the new funding will help launch clinical trials when the drug will be tested on humans for treating Alzheimer and Parkinson’s disease.

Link Medicine is focusing its drug discovery approach around the work of Harvard Medical School neurologist Peter Lansbury, its Chief Scientific Officer. Lansbury is working to develop counter measures against the building-up of misfolded proteins in neural tissue, a common factor seen in several neurodegenerative conditions.  However, reports from Boston Globe state, Link is actually testing a drug compound an unnamed pharmaceutical firm tested unsuccessfully for an illness, different from Alzheimer’s.

Despite turmoil in financial markets, Link’s ability to raise so much of money for drug testing, shows venture capital firms still place their bets on life science startups aiming to meet high unmet needs scientifically.  This confirms that venture capital is still available for promising technology and biotechnology firms, with Clarus Ventures Director - Nick Galakatos saying the funding is “a novel way to tackle Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders’.