AbbVie has announced that it will be acquiring Aliada Therapeutics for $1.4bn, marking a notable boost to its neuroscience pipeline.
The deal gives AbbVie access to Aliada’s therapies that use a novel blood-brain barrier (BBB)-crossing technology to address challenging central nervous system (CNS) diseases. This includes lead candidate ALIA-1758, an anti-pyroglutamate amyloid beta antibody in phase 1 development for Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
An estimated 982,000 people are living with dementia in the UK, with AD accounting for up to 75% of cases. The neurodegenerative disease slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out simple task
Roopal Thakkar, executive vice president, research and development and chief scientific officer at AbbVie, said: “This acquisition immediately positions us to advance ALIA-1758, a potentially best-in-class disease-modifying therapy for AD.
“In addition, Aliada’s novel BBB-crossing technology strengthens our research and development capabilities to accelerate the development of next-generation therapies for neurological disorders and other diseases where enhanced delivery of therapeutics into the CNS is beneficial.”
Aliada’s Modular Delivery (MODEL) platform is designed to deliver different types of biological cargoes into the brain, including therapeutic antibodies and genetic medicines such as small interfering RNA.
ALIA-1758 utilises the transferrin protein to transport a 3pE-Aβ antibody across the BBB to enable degradation and elimination of amyloid beta plaques, a hallmark of AD.
Aliada’s chief medical officer, Michael Ryan, said: “Many promising CNS-targeted therapies fail to reach late-stage trials due to their inability to cross the blood-brain barrier. Our MODEL platform addresses this challenge directly, efficiently delivering targeted drugs and potentially transforming how we treat neurological diseases.”
The announcement comes less than three months after AbbVie completed its $8.7bn
acquisition
of Cerevel Therapeutics, giving it access to multiple clinical-stage and preclinical candidates targeting neurological and psychiatric disorders.
The company also recently completed its $212.5m
acquisition
of Landos Biopharma, which included an oral NLRX1 agonist currently in phase 2 for the treatment of moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis.