Acumen Pharmaceuticals and JCR Pharmaceuticals have entered a strategic collaboration to develop an Enhanced Brain Delivery therapy for Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
The partnership combines Acumen’s expertise in amyloid beta oligomer-selective antibodies with JCR’s blood-brain barrier-penetrating technology to improve AD treatment delivery.
It will leverage JCR’s J-Brain Cargo technology to enhance Acumen’s portfolio of amyloid beta oligomer-targeted therapies.
The collaboration aims to develop next-generation treatment options with improved efficacy, safety, and convenience for Alzheimer’s patients.
Under the terms of the agreement, JCR will receive an upfront payment and may receive additional payments if Acumen exercises its option.
It is also eligible for milestone payments and royalties on sales from the collaboration.
The collaboration builds on an existing partnership between Acumen and JCR, focused on combining JCR’s transferrin receptor technology with Acumen’s antibodies.
JCR Pharmaceuticals chairman, president and CEO Shin Ashida said: “Alzheimer’s disease remains one of the greatest unmet needs in medicine, and the collaboration with Acumen marks a significant milestone in our effort to address it.
“By combining our J-Brain Cargo platform with Acumen’s novel, AβO-selective antibodies, we aim to overcome the challenge of delivering biologics to the brain, which has limited progress in treating neurodegenerative disease safely and effectively.
“This collaboration not only advances a promising approach in Alzheimer’s but also reinforces J-Brain Cargo as a clinically validated, scalable platform for CNS drug development.”
JCR’s J-Brain Cargo technology facilitates efficient drug delivery to target tissues, including the central nervous system, through receptor-mediated transcytosis.
It is applicable to various modalities, such as antibodies, enzymes, and gene therapies.
The first drug developed using this technology is approved in Japan for a lysosomal storage disorder, demonstrating an established safety profile.
Acumen’s lead programme, sabirnetug, also known as ACU193, is a humanised monoclonal antibody that targets amyloid beta oligomers in AD patients.
The drug received the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Fast Track designation for sabirnetug in early AD treatment and is currently under evaluation in a Phase 2 study.
The Phase 1 INTERCEPT-AD trial showed that sabirnetug was generally well-tolerated and demonstrated statistically significant amyloid plaque reduction compared to placebo.
The ongoing Phase 2 ALTITUDE-AD trial involves 542 patients in the US, Canada, the European Union (EU), and the UK, with results expected in late 2026.
Acumen CEO Daniel O’Connell said: “We are thrilled to enter into this collaboration pairing Acumen’s AβO-targeted antibody expertise with JCR’s validated proprietary BBB-penetrating technology after completion of a number of feasibility experiments with JCR over the past year.
“Coupling Acumen’s differentiated mechanistic approach using AβO-preferring antibodies with JCR’s innovative transferrin BBB-delivery platform may support the advancement of an exciting next-generation therapeutic option for this area of significant unmet need.
“Following a robust search and evaluation process assessing multiple technologies in the space, we are excited to formalise this collaboration with an established leader who has successfully developed an approved therapy in Japan.”
