New MS Drug Patch for Myelin Repair Moves to Clinical Trials

Funding and Development Roadmap for the Theophylline Patch

ForTra gGmbH for Research Transfer, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation, announced the EUR 1.1 million financial injection on September 1, 2026, according to announcements from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. This funding follows earlier preclinical support of EUR 140,000 from the Mainz Science Foundation. The capital enables the research team to transfer the drug patch to a German patch-manufacturing company. There, the product will undergo optimization for larger-scale production under Good Manufacturing Practice standards, which are legally required for medicinal products used in human clinical trials.

Following manufacturing optimization, the patch will be evaluated at the Mainz University Medical Center in a Phase I clinical trial involving healthy volunteers. According to project disclosures, this initial trial will primarily assess patch adhesion, overall tolerability, and how effectively the drug passes through the skin. The trial will not measure myelin regeneration in multiple sclerosis patients at this early stage.

Targeting Myelin Repair via HDAC2 Activation

Multiple sclerosis is characterized as a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that damages the fatty myelin sheath protecting nerve fibers within the brain and spinal cord. While existing therapies focus primarily on suppressing inflammation and preventing new relapses, no currently approved treatment specifically rebuilds already damaged myelin, a regenerative mechanism known as remyelination.

Professor Claire Jacob, Cellular Neurobiology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, has spent more than 20 years investigating the molecular mechanisms behind myelin regeneration. Her laboratory identified the epigenetically active enzyme histone deacetylase 2, or HDAC2, as a critical driver of this repair process. To activate HDAC2, the Mainz researchers identified theophylline, an established medication used for decades at higher doses to treat asthma and other respiratory conditions. Experiments conducted by the Mainz team in mice demonstrated that low-dose theophylline successfully increases HDAC2 activity to promote myelin repair.

Transdermal Delivery via Biopharmaceutic Innovation

Together, the researchers developed a transdermal patch engineered to continuously deliver small, controlled amounts of theophylline through the skin over the course of several days. This continuous transdermal administration bypasses oral dosing fluctuations, keeping the active compound at the precise low threshold necessary to stimulate HDAC2 without triggering the higher-dose side effects associated with legacy respiratory treatments.