AC Immune’s therapeutic and diagnostic programs for Parkinson’s achieve milestones

AC Immune, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a broad pipeline focused on neurodegenerative diseases, announced it is one of the winners of the Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), and is eligible to receive together with its partner USD 3.2 million (CHF 3.1 million).

The funding will support the nonclinical and clinical investigation of AC Immune’s proprietary alpha-synuclein-PET tracers, which are the most advanced in the field and could deliver the world’s first imaging agent capable of accurately detecting and monitoring progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune SA, commented: “AC Immune is very proud to have attracted repeated support from MJFF over the last five years to advance development of alpha-synuclein-PET tracers. This award follows compelling preclinical results presented this week at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) on our next generation PET tracer which demonstrates enhanced contrast and alpha-synuclein target specificity, putting our tracer in a strong position to become a first-in-class precision diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s disease (PD). An effective alpha-synuclein PET tracer would enable and accelerate the development of new PD therapies as a powerful tool for measuring the effect of novel drugs on alpha-synuclein pathology in the brain.”

Jamie Eberling, Ph.D, Vice President of Research at MJFF, said: “The Foundation is committed to the development of an imaging tracer for Parkinson’s. AC Immune has already advanced alpha-synuclein tracers to human clinical testing, and we look forward to its progress as it continues clinical testing and develops new tracers.”

The MJFF award for AC Immune’s alpha-synuclein-PET program follows the announcement at this year’s AAT-AD/PD conference that the Company’s therapeutic antibody candidate has advanced into preclinical development to treat PD and other synucleinopathies. The combined potential of AC Immune’s therapeutic and diagnostic programs is based on the Company’s capabilities in precision medicine and may improve the diagnosis and treatment of alpha-synuclein pathologies, which are also of increasing interest in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and NeuroOrphan indications.