Two Companies Partner to Pursue New Therapeutic for Acromegaly
by Suzanne Potter
The French pharmaceutical company Amolyt Pharma and the Japanese company PeptiDream recently announced they will team up to develop therapeutic peptides for the treatment of acromegaly.
Amolyt, based in Lyon and in Boston, has experience in this field. Currently they have a program in development for hypoparathyroidism that has recently received orphan drug status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Amolyt is also working on a second peptide for glucose and fat metabolism, which is in the preclinical stage.
PeptiDream, based in Kanagawa, is a large company with teams of peptide chemists that is partnering Amolyt to move their discovery forward.
In an article from the Orange Coast News, 23-year-old food blogger Justine Okajima recounts how she discovered her pituitary tumor, got treatment and even finished college, earning an M.F.A.in Dance with a minor in hospitality management from Cal State University Long Beach. 
An article in the Daily Bruin tells the story of 11-year-old Matthew Ignacio from Pico Rivera, CA who is battling a craniopharyngioma. Through a program called Team Impact, he has signed a letter of intent to “join” the UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) men’s volleyball team, and has bonded with the athletes through music and video games.
An article in the Comet tells the story of a young teenager named Luke Webber from the U-K who is raising money for s children’s brain tumor charity called Anna’s Home, after undergoing surgery for a craniopharyngioma. He has raised more than 7,600 pounds ($6,833) so far. 
The PNA would like to congratulate longtime PNA member Nelson M. Oyesiku, MD, PhD, FACS, on his appointment as Chair of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery. He has served for many years as co-director of the Emory Pituitary Center and is the editor-in-chief of the journals Neurosurgery, Operative Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery Open.
The PNA Spotlight focuses this month on Tyler Kenning MD, FAANS, director of pituitary and cranial base surgery at the Piedmont Brain Tumor Center at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital. Dr. Kenning studied medicine at Jefferson Medical College and did an internship and residency at Albany Medical Center. He went on to complete a fellowship in neurosurgical oncology and cranial base surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Dr. Kenning was kind enough to answer a series of questions from the PNA; his answers follow.
