Athira Pharma Inc. closed on an $85 million series B financing designed to advance its small molecule, NDX-1017, into a phase II/III trial for treating Alzheimer’s disease later this year. The company is using positive data generated last year from its phase Ia/b trial in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease as a springboard to the clinic.
SAN DIEGO – Smaller companies looking to move their Alzheimer’s disease drugs into late-stage testing as quickly as possible are eschewing cognitive endpoints that can take years to readout for biomarkers and functional assays of brain activity.