AC Immune Initiates Phase I Study For Alzheimer's Disease

AC Immune SA (NASDAQ:ACIU) announced that it has dosed the first subject in the phase I study of ACI-3024, a first-in-class, investigational, oral, small molecule Tau Morphomer inhibitor, for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD), characterized by the presence of pathological Tau aggregates. Shares of the company rose 5.56% following the news. However, shares of the company have decreased 37.7% year to date against the industry’s growth of 0.7%.

The phase I study is a placebo controlled, study with open label food effect and pharmacodynamics assessment arms to assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of ACI-3024 in healthy volunteers.

The initiation of the study represents a significant advancement in AC Immune’s collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) . We remind investors that in December 2018,AC Immune and Lilly signed a license and collaboration agreement to research and develop tau aggregation inhibitor small molecules for the potential treatment of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The collaboration will mainly focus on ACI-3024. The deal combines AC Immune's proprietary Morphomer platform technology with Lilly's clinical development expertise and commercial capabilities in central nervous system disorders. The company will conduct the initial phase I development of the Morphomer Tau aggregation inhibitors, while Lilly will fund and conduct further clinical development.

According to AC Immune, Tau pathology is a potential therapeutic target to treat a complex disease like AD..

Alzheimer’s is a fatal illness that causes progressive decline in memory. It has always been a highly challenging area, with not much progress being made despite significant investments (both funds and resources) by drug companies.

Companies continue to invest heavily in developing Alzheimer’s disease treatments. The market has immense commercial potential and companies coming up with new treatments could rake in billions of dollars.

Alector, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALEC) in collaboration with AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) is also developing a candidate, AL003, for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Alector is focused on identifying and functionally repairing genetic mutations that cause dysfunction of the brain immune system, leading to neurodegeneration.

AC Immunecurrently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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