Five and a half years after its decision to spin off its pharmaceutical business and a year and a half away from having the US Supreme Court break its monopoly on BRCA gene testing, Myriad Genetics is no longer an exception among molecular diagnostics companies. It must find its way along a more crowded path.

Researchers have shown that a new class of small molecule can inhibit assembly of the protein alpha-synuclein into toxic clumps, a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. Their work supports other ongoing investigations suggesting that the compound may be useful as a neuroprotective agent for treating a range of diseases characterized by the clumping of amyloid proteins, including Alzheimer’s disease, various types of amyloidosis, and prion disease.

Roche Holding AG has established itself as a leader in areas like oncology, infectious disease, liver disease and inflammatory disease. Now, the company is eyeing the central nervous system as a new frontier for its R&D, stealthily building a considerable clinical-stage pipeline in the process.