Eli Lilly and Medtronic will collaborate to research and develop a new approach to treating Parkinson's disease.  The new approach involves investigating the delivery of a new medicine to the brain using an implantable drug delivery system. The goal is to develop a therapeutic approach to treating Parkinson's disease that combines Lilly's biologic, a modified form of glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), with Medtronic's implantable drug infusion system technology.

"We believe we have biosynthetically engineered this GDNF variant to overcome technical hurdles of previous research in this area and are hopeful that early testing of our biologic with Medtronic's device will provide the necessary data to safely advance into human studies," said Michael L. Hutton, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of the neurodegeneration team at Lilly. "By collaborating with Medtronic from the earliest phase of research, we are maximizing the potential for this therapy's efficient and effective development."