AlzeCure gets presentation accepted on disease-modifying effects of ACD856 at Alzheimer’s conference

AlzeCure gets presentation accepted on disease-modifying effects of ACD856 at Alzheimer’s conference

AlzeCure Pharma AB (publ) (FN STO: ALZCUR), a pharmaceutical company that develops a broad portfolio of small molecule candidate drugs for diseases affecting the central nervous system, with projects in both Alzheimer’s disease and pain, today announced that an abstract with preclinical data on NeuroRestore ACD856 demonstrating its potential disease-modifying effects has been accepted for presentation at the annual Alzheimer's conference CTAD, Clinical Trials in Alzheimer's Disease, which this year is being held in Boston on October 24-27.

The abstract, titled NeuroRestore ACD856, a Trk-PAM in clinical development for Alzheimer’s disease shows neuroprotective and neurorestorative effects, will be presented at the international Alzheimer conference CTAD 2023 by Martin Jönsson, CEO at AlzeCure. Other authors are Pontus Forsell, Veronica Lidell, Azita Rasti, Gunnar Nordvall and Johan Sandin.

The presentation includes new preclinical results with ACD856, the lead candidate drug within the NeuroRestore platform. The data show that the substance exhibits both protective and regenerative effects on nerve cells, indicating potentially disease-modifying properties of this class of molecules.

”Among other things, our new data shows that ACD856 protects nerve cells against the toxic effects of the protein amyloid-beta, which is the main component of the harmful amyloid plaques that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients", said Pontus Forsell, Head of Discovery & Research at AlzeCure Pharma AB.

Previous preclinical studies have shown that AlzeCure's drug candidates strengthen communication between nerve cells and improve cognitive ability, including learning and memory functions. ACD856 has undergone phase I clinical studies, where both good safety and tolerability were demonstrated in humans, but also that the candidate drug crossed the blood-brain barrier and that the substance activated parts of the brain that are central to both cognition and depression treatment.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to present our new data at such a large and recognized Alzheimer's conference as CTAD. With the positive clinical results we previously obtained with ACD856, as well as these new preclinical results that further support a disease-modifying and protective effect, we have both a very promising and unique candidate drug in our research portfolio, in an area of great unmet medical need", said Martin Jönsson, CEO of AlzeCure Pharma AB.

The abstract and the poster will be available on AlzeCure's website after the presentation (https://www.alzecurepharma.se/sv/presentationer-och-intervjuer).

For more information, please contact

Martin Jönsson, CEO
Tel: +46 707 86 94 43
martin.jonsson@alzecurepharma.com

About AlzeCure Pharma AB (publ)

AlzeCure® is a Swedish pharmaceutical company that develops new innovative drug therapies for the treatment of severe diseases and conditions that affect the central nervous system, such as Alzheimer’s disease and pain – indications for which currently available treatment is very limited. The company is listed on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market and is developing several parallel drug candidates based on three research platforms: NeuroRestore®, Alzstatin® and Painless.

NeuroRestore consists of two symptomatic drug candidates where the unique mechanism of action allows for multiple indications, including Alzheimer’s disease, as well as cognitive disorders associated with traumatic brain injury, sleep apnea and Parkinson’s disease. The Alzstatin platform focuses on developing disease-modifying and preventive drug candidates for early treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and comprises two drug candidates. Painless is the company’s research platform in the field of pain and contains two projects: ACD440, which is a drug candidate in the clinical development phase for the treatment of neuropathic pain, and TrkA-NAM, which targets severe pain in conditions such as osteoarthritis. AlzeCure aims to pursue its own projects through preclinical research and development through an early clinical phase, and is continually working on business development to find suitable outlicensing solutions with other pharmaceutical companies.

FNCA Sweden AB, +46(0)8 528 00 399 info@fnca.se, is the company’s Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit www.alzecurepharma.se.

About NeuroRestore
NeuroRestore is a platform of symptom-relieving drug candidates for disease states in which cognitive ability is impaired, e.g. Alzheimer’s Disease, sleep apnea, traumatic brain injury and Parkinson’s disease. NeuroRestore stimulates several important signaling pathways in the brain, which among other things leads to improved cognition. Preclinical studies with NeuroRestore have shown that AlzeCure’s drug candidates enhance communication between the nerve cells and improve cognitive ability. The NeuroRestore substances are so called Trk-PAMs which stimulate specific signaling pathways in the central nervous system known as neurotrophins, the most well-known being NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) and BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor). The levels of NGF and BDNF are disturbed in several disease states and the signaling is reduced. The impaired function impairs communication between the synapses, i.e. the contact surfaces of the nerve endings, as well as reducing the possibility of survival for the nerve cells, which gives rise to the cognitive impairments. Neurotrophins play a crucial role for the function of nerve cells, and a disturbed function of BDNF has a strong genetic link to impaired cognitive ability in several different diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury and sleep disorders. There is also a link between BDNF signaling and depression, something that has been further strengthened in recent years. In addition to cognitive-enhancing effects, new preclinical data also show that NeuroRestore substances have a positive effect on mitochondrial function and cell survival, which could indicate potential disease-modifying effects. The leading drug candidate in the platform, ACD856, has recently completed clinical phase I studies and demonstrated positive effects there that support continued development of the program.

About Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting approximately 45 million people worldwide. Alzheimer’s disease is a lethal disorder that also has a large impact on both relatives and the society. Today, preventive and disease modifying treatments are missing. The main risk factors to develop Alzheimer’s are age and genetic causes. Even though the disease can start as early as between 40 and 65 years of age, it is most common after 65 years. Significant investments in Alzheimer research are being made because of the significant unmet medical need and the large cost of this disease for healthcare and society. The total global costs for dementia related diseases is estimated to about 1,000 billion USD globally in 2018. Given the lack of both effective symptomatic treatments and disease modifying treatments, the need for new effective therapies is acute.The few approved drugs on the market today have only a limited symptomatic effect and can produce dose limiting side effects. A disease modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to reach more than $15 billion in annual sales. In Sweden, approximately 100,000 people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease with a healthcare cost of about SEK 63 billion yearly, which is more than for cancer and cardiovascular diseases combined.