U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co and AC Immune SA have agreed to jointly develop the Swiss biotech’s potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease,  Reuters reported.

The 2 companies announced that they have signed a 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.

AC Immune will conduct the initial Phase 1 development of the Morphomer tau aggregation inhibitors, while Lilly will fund and conduct further clinical development. Lilly will receive worldwide commercialization rights for the tau aggregation inhibitors in the area of Alzheimer's disease. AC Immune has retained certain development rights in orphan indications and co-development and co-promotion options in certain indications outside AD.

The collaboration will focus primarily on AC Immune's lead molecule, ACI-3024, which has demonstrated tau aggregation inhibition in preclinical models.

About AC Immune's Tau Morphomers

Several chemical series of small molecules (MorphomersTM) have been identified which selectively and potently reduce toxic intracellular misfolded and aggregated tau. Targeting intracellular misfolded and aggregated tau is widely recognized as an important and attractive potential approach for interfering with the spread of tau pathology throughout the brain. In some proof-of-concept tauopathy models, reduction of tau pathology was also accompanied by a reduction of associated neuroinflammatory markers - another key pathologic feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). 

There is a desperate need for a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Several drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc and Merck and Co Inc, have been forced to abandon their trials after dozens of failures of experimental drugs.