Roche jumps ship on AC Immune

Genentech, Roche’s US subsidiary, is ending its decades-long collaboration with AC Immune SA after disappointing study results. It has handed the global rights to Crenezumab and Semorinemab back to the Lausanne-based biotech.

In recent trials, both Semorinemab, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) binding all forms of Tau, and Crenezumab, a mAb targeting multiple forms of misfolded Abeta, had failed to show consistently positive results. It was these underwhelming study results that led to the split, Roche told the biotech analysts at Endpoint News. “Following data read-outs, the evaluation of programmes with AC Immune have led to the decision to stop any further research and development of semorinemab and crenezumab, which also means our long-lasting partnership with AC Immune is coming to an end,” Roche told Endpoint News.

AC Immune, meanwhile, is putting a positive spin on the news: “AC Immune is highly focused on progressing its three active immunotherapies from its precision medicine pipeline,” commented CEO Andrea Pfeifer. The company’s pipeline features sixteen therapeutic and diagnostic programmes, among them ACI-24.060, an anti-amyloid beta (Abeta) active immunotherapy (vaccine)-candidate for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, ACI-7104.056, an anti-alpha-synuclein (a-syn) active immunotherapy, to treat Parkinson’s disease, and ACI-35.030, an investigational targeted active immunotherapy, selective for pathological phosphorylated Tau (pTau).
Pfeifer continued: “With the recent milestone payment from our partner in the Tau active immunotherapy programme, plus the US50m financing secured in December, we are well financed into 2026, and able to advance multiple high value development programmes.”