AC Immune Wins Prestigious Award to Develop a “Game-Changing” Parkinson’s Diagnostic Tool

AC Immune is one of three winners sharing USD 10 million through The Michael J. Fox Foundation Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition

The award follows compelling preclinical results presented at AAIC on the Company’s alpha-synuclein positron emission tomography -(PET) tracer program

Further validates the ability of AC Immune’s proprietary platforms to accelerate delivery of a new class of promising diagnostics in neurodegenerative diseases

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, July 30, 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 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). The clinical arm of the AC Immune project will be conducted in partnership with Prof. Oskar Hansson’s team of world-class researchers at Lund University and Skåne University Hospital in Sweden, which is a recognized Center of Excellence in the field of diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases. Skåne University Hospital is eligible to receive USD 0.7 million over two years to support this arm of the project.

Prof. 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). This is a particularly important area of research, and this award really demonstrates the power of our innovative Morphomer discovery platform to accelerate the design, development and synthesis of conformation-specific small molecules. 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.”