Significant events during the period January – September, 2020
In January, the company in-licensed a new project, ACD440, which focuses on neuropathic pain and is in clinical development phase. Martin Jönsson was appointed to serve as the new Chief Executive Officer in January 2020. Martin has worked in the global pharmaceutical industry for more than 20 years, with extensive experience from various executive positions at both Ferring Pharmaceutical and Roche. Johan Sandin took over the position of Chief Scientific Officer in January, which enabled him to dedicate all of his time to research and development. An van Es Johansson joined the management group in March as Head of Development & Chief Medical Officer and thereby stepped down from the Board of Directors. This arrangement further strengthens the company in a period when it is developing and preparing to increase the number of clinical trials, in line with previously announced plans.
In April the company presented a “late-breaking abstract” at the Advances in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Therapies (AAT-AD/PD) conference. Dr. Pontus Forsell, Head of Discovery, and lead author of the study, gave an oral presentation entitled “ACD856 a positive modulator of neurotrophin signaling reverses scopolamine- or age-induced cognitive deficits”. The study shows that treatment with ACD856 results in potent memory enhancement in preclinical studies.
In June the company presented favorable data from the first clinical trial with ACD856, which showed that ACD856 has a good pharmacokinetic profile with a significantly shorter half-life in humans than its predecessor, ACD855, and that the candidate is suitable for further clinical development as an oral therapy for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. In the third quarter the company was represented and active in various scientific contexts, including scientific symposiums focused on Alzheimer’s disease arranged with Professor Bengt Winblad at Karolinska Institutet, as well as professor Henrik Zetterberg, active at University College London in the UK and the University of Gothenburg.
Significant events during the period October – December, 2020
The company presented two abstracts at the conference Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) held November 4–7, one concerning the NeuroRestore platform and the other one concerning the Alzstatin platform. In November the company received approval from the regulatory authorities in Sweden to initiate a phase I clinical trial with the drug candidate ACD856.
In December the company received approval to initiate a phase Ib clinical trial with ACD440 in neuropathic pain. Favorable preclinical efficacy data for the pain project TrkA-NAM were obtained in December in an in vivo study. The company progressed into preclinical development phase with the drug candidate ACD857 in December.
“AlzeCure has yet another positive and eventful quarter behind it during which its operations progressed according to plan, with advances in all three of our project platforms: NeuroRestore, Alzstatin and Painless. In the last quarter the company received regulatory approval for new clinical trials in ACD856 and ACD440, both of which were also initiated. We also received positive preclinical results for pain project TrkA-NAM, which we are excited about.”
- Martin Jönsson, CEO
