AC Immune raises CHF 21 million in private financing round
Ecublens/Lausanne (ots)
AC Immune, a Swiss biotech company developing innovative therapies against Alzheimer's disease, today announced that it has successfully completed its round B financing raising CHF 21 million from private and strategic investors. The financing goal of CHF 21 millions was achieved with 2/3 of the invested capital contributed by new investors.
AC immune is focused on new therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease using vaccination or passive immunization with antibodies. Both the active and passive immunotherapy is directed against the beta amyloid protein which misfolds and forms plaques in Alzheimer's disease. The patent-protected antigen technology of AC Immune provides highly efficient immunization and solubilization of the plaques by inducing transition from the insoluble to the soluble from of the beta amyloid protein. AC Immune's pipeline comprises 3 compounds entering in clinical development in 2006/2007. The latest financing provides the funds to complete Phase I of at least one molecule in development.
"After obtaining encouraging results in animal studies showing the unique features of AC Immune's immunotherapeutic approach, we are very excited to move into the next phase of testing our lead molecules for clinical submission", said Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune.
"There is an outstanding market opportunity in Alzheimer's and conformational diseases, said Martin Velasco, Chairman of the Board of AC Immune. "Our investors and management share a common vision to leverage AC Immune's innovative approach in order to efficiently bring therapeutic solutions to the market."
The successful financing was built on the continuous trust of both existing and new investors in the company's technological edge, its intellectual property and the management capability to lead the company from preclinical into clinical development.
About AC Immune
AC Immune is a privately held company focusing on the development of therapies against Alzheimer's disease, a so-called conformational disease. AC Immune is using its proprietary immunology platform to develop active and passive immunotherapies, i.e. vaccine and monoclonal antibodies, against Alzheimer's disease, directly reducing the toxic ss-amyloid plaques in the brain. AC Immune's proprietary immunology platform technology brings the ability to break the immune tolerance to "self" proteins by generating conformation-sensitive antibodies that lead to the creation of active and passive immune therapies. The company's products are in the preclinical stage and the first product will enter clinical phase I in 2006.
The company was founded in February 2003 in Basel, Switzerland. Our team of experienced managers and scientists is located in Ecublens, Switzerland, and in the laboratories at the Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS) in Strasbourg, France.
AC Immune's intellectual property is based on research performed by Claude Nicolau, Ph.D., founder and an international leader in cellular biophysics, and Jean-Marie Lehn, Ph.D., Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Collège de France, Paris and Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, and specialist in molecular recognition and supramolecular chemistry.
AC Immune works closely with large pharma companies and is seeking strategic alliances for the development of its vaccine- and antibody-based Alzheimer's drugs.
Internet: http://www.acimmune.com
Contact:
Dr. Andrea Pfeifer
CEO
AC Immune
Phone: +41/21/693'91'22
E-mail: andrea.pfeifer@acimmune.com
A photo portrait of Dr. Andrea Pfeifer is available from
Violaine Dällenbach, Rochat & Partners
Phone: +41/22/718'37'42
E-Mail: vdallenbach@rochat-pr.ch