AbbVie is acquiring blood-brain technology pioneer Aliada Therapeutics for $1.4B, according to an announcement yesterday. Aliada’s lead candidate, ALIA-1758, is developed using its Modular Delivery (MODEL) technology. It’s an anti-pyroglutamate amyloid beta (3pE-Aβ) antibody against Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s is a very competitive field right now. The global market is estimated to be worth more than $3.5B, but there is currently no cure for the disease. Two FDA-approved drugs—Biogen’s Leqembi and Lilly’s Kisunla—target the Alzheimer’s hallmark amyloid plaques in the brain. But they are not very effective.
Still, over 55 million people worldwide are suffering from dementia, and that number is expected to double every 20 years, reaching 78 million in 2030 and 139 million in 2050, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International.
So, the race for next generation Alzheimer’s drugs is on.
“This acquisition immediately positions us to advance ALIA-1758, a potentially best-in-class disease-modifying therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, Aliada’s novel BBB-crossing technology strengthens our R&D 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,” said Roopal Thakkar, MD, executive vice president, research and development and chief scientific officer, AbbVie.
“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,” said Michael Ryan, MD, chief medical officer at Aliada.
Aliada’s MODEL platform targets transferrin and CD98 receptors (TfR and CD98), which are highly expressed in brain endothelial cells. Using engineered, highly optimized TfR or CD98 binders, the company says the “platform is designed to deliver different types of biological cargoes into the brain, including therapeutic antibodies and genetic medicines such as siRNA.”
ALIA-1758 uses TfR to transport a 3pE-Aβ antibody across the BBB to enable degradation and elimination of amyloid beta plaques, a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. This investigational candidate is currently in a Phase I clinical trial (NCT06406348).
“We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Aliada by AbbVie and are excited about AbbVie’s commitment to bringing ALIA-1758 to patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Our proprietary MODEL platform has enabled the development of ALIA-1758, a promising step forward in brain delivery of an anti-amyloid antibody therapy,” said Ryan.
“Neuroscience is one of our key growth areas and we are committed to driving innovation in this field to address critical unmet needs for patients living with seriously debilitating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease,” said Thakkar.
