Takeda Pharmaceutical, AC Immune Agree to Option and License Agreement, Including on Alzheimer's Treatment Candidate
Through a deal announced Monday, Takeda has secured an exclusive option to license “active immunotherapies” from the Swiss biotechnology company AC Immune. The agreement pertains to programs targeting what many researchers believe to be a root cause of Alzheimer's — a protein known as amyloid beta. Among those programs is a vaccine currently being tested in a roughly 140-person study titled “Abate.”
Per deal terms, Takeda holds an exclusive option to license global rights to the vaccine and any other AC immunotherapy directed at amyloid beta. In exchange, AC will receive $100 million upfront.
Should Takeda exercise its option, it would make another one-time payment in the low-to-mid nine-figure range. Altogether, AC could receive up to approximately $2.1 billion, provided its programs hit certain development, commercial and sales-based milestones.
AC Immune reports Q1 earnings; provides corporate update
- Reports Q1 EPS of ($0.18) vs ($0.15) FactSet consensus; co reported no revs
- Additionally, co signed a landmark deal announced with Takeda (TAK) for ACI-24.060 with $100 million upfront and total potential payments for option exercise and milestones of up to approximately $2.1 billion
- ACI-24.060 ABATE Phase 2 trial on track to report Abeta-PET imaging results in Q2 2024, evaluating amyloid plaque reduction after 6 months of anti-Abeta active immunotherapy
- ACI-7104.056 VacSYn Phase 2 trial of anti-a-syn active immunotherapy in Parkinson's disease (PD) on track for safety and immunogenicity interim data in H2 2024
- Three-year cash runway with CHF 104.8 million at quarter end, plus $100 million upfront from Takeda and the anticipated ACI-35.030-related CHF 25 million milestone
