By Colin Kellaher 
 

Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) and AC Immune SA (ACIU) on Wednesday said they agreed to collaborate on potential treatments for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases in a deal that could be worth billions of dollars to AC Immune.

The companies said the collaboration will focus primarily on AC Immune's lead molecule, ACI-3024, and will combine AC Immune's proprietary Morphomer platform technology with Eli Lilly's clinical development and commercial capabilities in central nervous system disorders.

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly will make an initial up-front payment of 80 million Swiss francs ($80.4 million) to AC Immune, which is also eligible for CHF60 million in potential near-term development milestone payments and up to about CHF1.7 billion in other potential milestones, the companies said.

Eli Lilly also will buy a $50 million note, convertible into an equity stake in AC Immune, a Lausanne, Switzerland, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.

Eli Lilly and AC Immune SA said they plan to develop tau aggregation inhibitor small molecules to potentially treat neurodegenerative diseases such as the memory-robbing disorder Alzheimer's.

The companies said Eli Lilly will have worldwide commercialization rights for the inhibitors in the area of Alzheimer's disease, while AC Immune retains certain development rights in orphan indications and co-development and co-promotion options in some indications outside Alzheimer's.

Drug makers have long sought to find a breakthrough treatment for Alzheimer's, which affects an estimated five million Americans and tens of millions globally. Current treatments for the brain disease can alleviate symptoms but don't slow the condition's underlying progression.

Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) in June scrapped two late-stage trials of an experimental Alzheimer's drug they were co-developing after the treatment didn't work as well as they had hoped.

Pfizer Inc. (PFE) in January said it would stop trying to discover new drugs for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Axovant Sciences Ltd. (AXON) and Biogen Inc. (BIIB) have also reported disappointing results from Alzheimer's research.

 

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2018 07:04 ET (12:04 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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