Benzinga | Jul 16, 2020 07:04AM EDT

AC Immune Advances Phospho-Tau Alzheimer's Vaccine In Phase 1b/2a Study

Interim data confirm the promising safety, tolerability and Tau-specific immunogenicity observed in the previous clinical study

ACI-35.030 is a clinical stage vaccine generated with the proprietary SupraAntigen(tm) platform addressing proteinopathies across neurodegenerative diseases

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AC Immune SA (NASDAQ:ACIU), a Swiss-based, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a broad pipeline focused on neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the initiation of the second highest dosing group in the Company's Phase 1b/2a clinical trial evaluating ACI-35.030 for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The decision to advance to the higher dosing group follows encouraging interim safety, tolerability and immunogenicity results from the initial dosing group.

Immunization with anti-Tau vaccines has become an important strategy for the treatment of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases characterized by Tau pathology. ACI-35.030, which is being developed in collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is the first AD vaccine candidate designed to generate a specific antibody response against pathologic phospho-Tau (pTau) proteins in the brain. Anti-pTau antibodies generated by ACI-35.030 have the potential to reduce the spread and seeding of Tau pathology throughout the brain.