AC Immune SA, a clinical-stage biopharma company developing therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, and Eli Lilly and Co. have amended their 2018 license and collaboration agreement to research and develop Tau aggregation inhibitor small molecules for the potential treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. The amendment continues the research and collaboration to cover development of new lead Tau Morphomer candidates and potential back-up compounds.

Under the amendment, AC Immune will receive a CHF10 million upfront payment and a subsequent milestone payment with Phase 1 dosing, in addition to milestones announced in a prior amendment. AC Immune is eligible for further development, regulatory and commercial milestones of over CHF1.7 billion, plus royalty payments, as previously disclosed.

Dr. Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune SA, said, “The progress in this collaboration highlights the important breakthroughs we have made with Morphomer small molecules for intracellular targeting of Tau. We look forward to working with the team at Lilly to drive forward the development of these potentially disruptive small molecule therapeutics for early-stage treatment and long-term prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. Increasingly, the scientific evidence suggests that targeting intracellular Tau can slow or even completely halt the pathology.”

Morphomer Tau candidates were selected for their ability to enter the brain when dosed orally, and for their specific binding to the targeted pathological conformation of the Tau protein. AC Immune has generated strong preclinical data suggesting that Tau Morphomers should be clinically relevant for inhibiting aggregation and seeding across pathological and disease stages.