AC Immune is acquiring drug projects from Affiris through a transaction to expand its prospects in Parkinson’s disease, which are a promising target for neurodegenerative diseases. These assets include a drug candidate that is ready to enter mid-term clinical testing.
according to Terms Announced on Tuesday that the stock trading value was 58.7 million U.S. dollars. AC Immune, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, purchased more than 7 million shares of Affiris at a price of $8.26 per share. The price per share represents a 16% premium to the closing price of AC Immune stock on Monday. In addition to acquiring Affiris assets, AC Immune will also receive US$5 million in cash from a privately held biotechnology company headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
At the core of the deal is PD01, a vaccine candidate against a protein called alpha-synuclein. Although the cause of Parkinson’s disease is not yet known, alpha-synuclein is toxic to nerve cells, and the abnormal deposition of this protein is related to the disease.
PD01 was developed using Affiris’ Affitome technology. The amino acid sequence developed by this technology can mimic the epitope (part of the antigen to which the antibody is attached) of the pathogenic form of the protein. These amino acid sequences are linked to carrier proteins and formulated with adjuvants to form therapeutic vaccines. By subcutaneous injection, these vaccines are designed to stimulate the production of antibodies against disease-causing proteins.
In the first phase of testing administered to 24 patients, the candidate vaccine was able to induce an antibody response. In addition, the study shows that there is evidence that antibodies can bind to alpha-synuclein, resulting in a 50% reduction in the level of the disease-causing form of protein in the cerebrospinal fluid. Repeated administration of PD01 is safe and well tolerated by patients who have been followed for about three and a half years.The result of the research is Publish Recently in Lancet Neurology.
While acquiring Parkinson’s assets, AC Immune also raised $25 million by selling the company’s stock to a selected group of investors, who may purchase shares at the same price as the shares in the Affiris transaction. This group of investors includes two family offices, Athos Service and First Capital Partner. MIG Fonds also acquired equity in AC Immune through its previous ownership in the acquired anti-alpha synuclein assets. These three entities are early investors in BioNTech.
The proceeds from the stock trading will support the second phase of development of the Parkinson’s asset targeting alpha-synuclein, which uses a new formula under the new name ACI-7104.in a Investor introductionAC Immune stated that the first part of the clinical trial will evaluate the initial response to this optimized Parkinson’s vaccine formulation, with a focus on evaluating the immune response to the pathogenic form of alpha-synuclein and protein. The study will also assess the progression of Parkinson’s symptoms. The experiment will then transition to the second part of the proof-of-concept study.
The Phase 2 Affiris vaccine candidate is ready to bring AC Immune a state-of-the-art plan for the disease. In the investor presentation, the company stated that the addition of therapeutic vaccines will enable the company to address the full range of Parkinson’s disease drug development issues, complement the preclinical projects that are developing antibodies and small molecules, and diagnoses that have been tested in humans. Another publicly known neurodegenerative disease solved by the AC immune channel is Alzheimer’s disease.
According to AC Immune, the acquisition of Affiris assets still requires the approval of the Austrian regulator Regulatory filingThe two companies are expected to complete the transaction at the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year.
At the same time, Affiris Say The transaction allows the company to turn its attention to other assets in its pipeline, including projects in cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.
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