AC Immune SA (NASDAQ: ACIU) shares are surging premarket after the biopharmaceutical company said its anti-pTau vaccine candidate, a collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, generated positive interim results from its ongoing Phase 1b/2a clinical trial evaluating the treatment on elderly patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
The company said the anti-phospho-Tau (pTau) vaccine candidate ACI-35.030 generated a potent antigen-specific antibody response against pTau in 100% of older patients with early Alzheimer’s disease achieving antibody levels several orders of magnitude higher than pre-vaccination levels. It also demonstrated an anti-pTau IgM response in all patients for both doses;
The vaccine also had no clinically relevant adverse events observed and was well tolerated.
AC Immune and Janssen plan to advance to the third and highest dosing group, per the study protocol.
“These remarkable data show that ACI-35.030 is capable of generating unprecedented antibody responses against pTau in an elderly population, with very high antigen-specific titers,” commented Professor Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune SA.
“We look forward to continuing to advance ACI-35.030 in our collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as we aim to bring this potentially breakthrough vaccine to patients,” Pfeifer added.
AC Immune shares have more than doubled premarket, currently trading at $16.59, +126.95%.