Research & Development

Halozyme Therapeutics has announced a global collaboration and non-exclusive licence with Acumen Pharmaceuticals, providing Acumen with access to Halozyme’s Enhanze drug deliver y technolog y. Acumen intends to use this technolog y for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Under terms of this agreement, Acumen will make an upfront payment to Halozyme along with potential future milestone payments related to development progress, regulatory approva ls and sales attainment. Halozyme will also be entitled to gain single digit royalties depending on net sales of commercialised medicines using the Enhanze technolog y.

Acumen has already reported positive results from a phase 1 trial, which demonstrate that ACU193 was generally welltolerated with a compelling overall safety profile, meaning the drug met the primary objective of its first-in-human, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in both single and multiple doses in patients with early AD.

Dr Helen Torley, president and chief executive officer of Halozyme, commented: “Our collaboration with Acumen for Enhanze reinforces our commitment to provide innovative solutions to improve the patient treatment experience, particularly for such a challenging disease in a large patient population. We share Acumen’s view that the AD treatment paradigm is at a key inflection point with recent and expected approva ls paving a new path for treatment. We appreciate the opportunity to enter this market and look forward to supporting the development of ACU193 to emerge as a potential treatment of choice.”

According to the company’s press release: ‘This deal marks Halozyme’s thirteenth global collaboration and license partner for the Enhanze technolog y. These collaborations cover more than 60 therapeutic targets and include seven commercialised products to date.’