Preclinical Pipeline

A rich portfolio of compounds at preclinical stage provides new potential candidates for AC Immune´s clinical pipeline.

Innovative Treatments for Alzheimer´s Disease

Morphomers™
Morphomers™ are small molecules, designed to inhibit aggregation of Abeta-Oligos. Lead molecules with desired CNS-properties, strong Abeta inhibition and good toxicity properties have been designed in house from the Morphomer™ Technology Platform. Several molecules show plaque reduction and memory improvement in vivo. This program is under preclinical development.

Tau Program
Tau is also a protein assigned to have a causative role in Alzheimer´s Disease. The Tau protein normally helps organize and stabilize a cell’s internal "skeleton". In Alzheimer´s Disease, Tau deforms and loses its ability to support the cell, eventually aggregating into neurofibrillary tangles that are the other hallmark of Alzheimer’s Disease brain lesions. AC Immune applies the SupraAntigen™ Technology Platform to generate passive and active Immunotherapies against this target. This program is at late research stage and relying on animal models and scientific expertise from Prof. F. van Leuven, one of the scientific founders of the company. The anti-Tau antibody program was exclusively licensed to Genentech in June 2012.

Leveraging Existing Molecules in other Diseases

Misfolded Abeta and Tau has recently also been identified as a central point of many other diseases with unmet medical needs and large markets. This feature gives AC Immune the opportunity to leverage its existing therapeutic molecules in other conformational diseases of the CNS and non-CNS related diseases, such as Glaucoma. This strategy can deliver a stronger pipeline of compounds in different applications to create further value and naturally diversify the risk of the product pipeline.