AC Immune unveils novel therapeutic antibody drug conjugate (ADC)

AC Immune, unveiled a novel class of neurodegenerative disease-fighting drug-candidates called morADC (Morphomer® Antibody Drug Conjugate) in a presentation at the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Madiha Derouazi, Chief Scientific Officer of AC Immune, presented the characterization and in vitro efficacy of morADC for the first time. The talk, entitled “A new class of neurodegenerative disease-fighting drugs: morADC (Morphomer®- Antibody Drug Conjugates)”, showed that:

• morADC are designed for CNS applications capable of addressing important targets including Abeta, Tau and a-synuclein
• morADC enable single or dual-targeting strategies (e.g. an anti-Abeta antibody combined with an anti-Tau small molecule) to deliver combination therapy in a single therapeutic agent
• single-targeting morADC (i.e. antibody and small molecule targeting the same protein) show significant synergistic anti-aggregation effects compared to the parental molecules
• dual-targeting morADC (e.g. Abeta/Tau) show significantly enhanced anti-aggregation effects compared to the parental molecules
• additionally, conjugation of brain-penetrant Morphomers with a monoclonal antibody can multiply antibody brain exposure in comparison to the parent antibody alone

While in oncology antibody-drug conjugates are designed to selectively kill tumor cells in a targeted manner, AC Immune’s morADC for neurodegenerative diseases combine the high brain penetrance of Morphomer small molecules with the target specificity of monoclonal antibodies, to reduce pathological, aggregating proteins in the central nervous system.

Dr. Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune SA, commented: “Today we unveil our powerful new morADC technology, which synergistically combines the industry-leading capabilities of our SupraAntigen and Morphomer platforms. Based on the data we have produced to date, we are confident that this is a groundbreaking moment, showing that morADC offer unique functionality and are potentially disruptive in our industry. We look forward with great enthusiasm to developing these exciting first-in-class therapeutic candidates as part of our mission to pioneer precision prevention for neurodegenerative diseases.”

“Our clinically validated SupraAntigen and Morphormer platforms have been the engines driving our track record of discovering and developing highly valuable therapeutic candidates. Our partnering history has demonstrated that these platforms are robust and that they have reliably enabled us to develop multiple first- and best-in-class molecules for diagnostic and therapeutic development.”

Source: press release