Abbvie Inc.’s much-hyped emraclidine, the centerpiece of its $8.7 billion buyout of Cerevel Therapeutics Inc., failed to hit its endpoints in two phase II trials in schizophrenia, sending company shares (NYSE:ABBV) down more than 12.6%, to close at 174.43, catching industry watchers by surprise and removing a potentially near-term competitor for Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s recently approved antipsychotic, Cobenfy (xanomeline-trospium).
Radiopharmaceutical biotech and contract development and organization firm Duchembio Co. Ltd. filed a securities report to South Korea’s Financial Services Commission Nov. 11, kickstarting the IPO process to list on the Korea Exchange.
As an array of developers push their Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) drugs along, PTC Therapeutics Inc.’s recent update on its program piqued thirst for the 15-lipoxygenase inhibitor vatiquinone. Warren, N.J.-based PTC said the prespecified endpoint for two different FA long-term extension studies was met, with highly statistically significant evidence of durable treatment benefit on disease progression.
Reducing microglial activity in the presence of apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) has uncovered a mechanism associated with the deposition of misfolded amyloid and tau in a novel mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. By transplanting human neurons into the mouse brain and eliminating the mouse microglia, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco observed that amyloid and tau deposition was reduced. These results support therapeutic strategies that target APOE4 and microglia.
The prospect of a gene therapy for Alzheimer’s disease has kept Wall Street steadily interested in Lexeo Therapeutics Inc., and another increment of intrigue was added when the New York-based firm offered positive interim results from the 52-week, 15-subject phase I/II study of LX-1001 for the treatment of the condition when APOE4-associated.
Two days after Monte Rosa Therapeutics Inc. signed a molecular glue degrader deal with Novartis AG, two other companies, Biogen Inc. and Neomorph Inc., are moving forward in the same space in a partnership worth up to $1.45 billion. Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen and San Diego-based Neomorph will develop molecular glue degraders (MGDs) for priority targets in Alzheimer’s, rare neurological and immunological diseases, using Neomorph’s MGD platform to identify and validate novel small-molecule protein degraders.
While phase II results of Coya Therapeutics Inc.’s low-dose IL-2 drug, COYA-301, showed promise in Alzheimer’s disease patients when dosed every four weeks, it was the more frequent dosing of every two weeks that led to exhausted regulatory T cells and no benefits, driving down the company’s stock by nearly 28%.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is enabling a foundational understanding of drug discovery that is changing the typical pathway used in modern development. The powerful new computer technology will lead developers from conducting hypothesis-driven research to more and deeper data-driven research, Manolis Kellis, professor at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, told those attending the BioFuture 2024 conference in New York on Oct. 28.
Only three years after it was co-founded by Johnson & Johnson, Aliada Therapeutics Inc. is being acquired by Abbvie Inc. in a deal valued at $1.4 billion that gives the big pharma firm another shot at the Alzheimer’s disease space. The all-cash deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, will give Abbvie access to Aliada’s blood-brain barrier-crossing Modular Delivery, or MODEL, as well as rights to ALIA-1758, an anti-pyroglutamate amyloid beta antibody designed using MODEL, which is in phase I testing for Alzheimer’s disease.
For a company that was running out of money, a missed phase III endpoint for its only development product knelled a death blow for Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc., tanking its stock by 82%. The Radnor, Pa.-based company will no longer develop oral ganaxolone for seizures associated with tuberous sclerosis complex, or for any other indication, as it reduces its workforce and explores strategic alternatives.
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