Asceneuron Joins Critical Path for Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium

Lausanne, SWITZERLAND and San Francisco, CA, USA, 26 March 2024 - Asceneuron SA, a clinical stage biotech company dedicated to targeting the root causes of neurodegenerative diseases, today announces that it has joined the Critical Path Institute’s, Critical Path for Alzheimer’s Disease (CPAD) Consortium. With its highly experienced leadership team and world class Scientific Advisory Board of leading experts in neurodegenerative diseases, Asceneuron is well positioned to contribute to the consortium.

Asceneuron has an exemplary pipeline of O-GlcNAcase (OGA) inhibitors in clinical development that have the potential to halt disease progression in neurodegenerative diseases. Its lead asset, ASN51, is a potential best-in-class, orally administered, OGA inhibitor targeting tau aggregation and will be progressing into Phase II clinical development later this year. The CPAD consortium is proceeding to advance important biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), such as tau Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and is accelerating the pathway for approval of promising new therapies. As a member of CPAD, Asceneuron will work collaboratively with the consortium to help address the large unmet medical need of patients and families suffering due to neurodegenerative diseases.

Ryan Schubert, Senior Vice President Research and Development at Asceneuron, said: “We are honored to be collaborating with the CPAD consortium alongside esteemed fellow members, all of whom are dedicated to accelerating drug development to improve patients’ lives. CPAD has gathered high quality data and experts from industry, academia and regulatory agencies with a focus on bringing new treatment options to patients suffering with AD. We look forward to contributing to and impacting the treatment pathway for AD as we advance our lead intracellular tau-targeting asset, ASN51, into Phase II clinical development later this year. Further information will be shared at upcoming scientific conferences.”

Yashmin Karten, PhD, MBA, Associate Director at Critical Path for Alzheimer’s Disease, added: “C-Path is proud to welcome Asceneuron as the newest member of its CPAD Consortium. Asceneuron's research on molecules that prevent the formation of toxic tau aggregates in the brain to slow down or stop the progression of AD provides a welcome addition to the intellectual brain power and wealth of scientific knowledge within the consortium. CPAD's diverse stakeholders and members are dedicated to enhancing regulatory decision-making tools to advance drug development and improve the lives of those living with AD and related dementia (ADRD).

CPAD’s mission is to accelerate the drug development process for patients with chronic neurodegenerative disease leading to dementia. Its primary focus is on AD. CPAD works with industry, regulatory authorities, academia, and patient advocacy organizations to aggregate anonymized patient-level data consensus standards with the aim of advancing drug development tools for evaluating drug efficacy and safety, to optimize novel clinical trial designs, and facilitating the regulatory review process.”

CPAD’s integrated and standardized patient-level database comprises over 100,000 patient level records across 73 separate clinical trial datasets. These records are utilized by over 370 institutions worldwide. Alongside its biotech and pharmaceutical company members, the initiative incorporates feedback from all its stakeholders, including government and regulatory agencies. CPAD has ongoing efforts as part of its pre-competitive working groups to evaluate the potential of tau PET as a reliable surrogate endpoint, with the aim of enhancing efficiency in Alzheimer’s disease drug development.