Swiss biotech firm starts new Alzheimer vaccine trial

AC Immune, a privately held biotech company based in Switzerland, has launched the world’s first trial of a vaccine against a protein believed to cause Alzheimer’s after securing funding from private investors. Its ACI-35 vaccine aims to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies which target the tau protein that forms twisted fibers and tangles inside the brain. Many scientists believe tau is an important cause of Alzheimer’s, alongside another protein known as amyloid, that has been the main focus of drug development efforts so far. AC Immune’s most advanced Alzheimer’s drug is the anti-Abeta antibody crenezumab which it licensed to Roche’s subsidiary Genentech in 2006.