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Alector won $ 133 million through a fifth round of venture capital financing, with the intention of getting at least three of its immunomodulatory drugs into clinical trials against neurodegenerative diseases. next year, especially in Alzheimer's disease and
The South San Francisco-based company also unveiled the first three targets of its pipeline, including two immune system receptors used in the brain: TREM2 and SIGLEC- 3, which can act as the accelerator or the brake, respectively, the hypothesis of Alector argues that a dysfunctional immune system may be linked to higher risk of disease. Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia, and the company hopes that its immuno-neurological drugs will bring as many benefits to the body's microglial response and elimination of proteins beta-amyloid. like similar therapies have shown in cancer.
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"We are going to test both drugs as a stand-alone and combined modality," explains Arnon Rosenthal, PhD, who expects clinical trials to be launched by the end of the year. Year, said FierceBiotech. "You may have to both press the accelerator and release the brake for the car to move in. So we test both to find the most optimal approach."
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The company aims to obtain rapid data on the accuracy of its hypothesis and uses a series of liquid biomarkers and imaging to measure the early activity of drugs against Alzheimer's disease. The exploration of a third drug and target, in frontotemporal dementia, is expected earlier because of the faster progression of this disease.
In preclinical research, individuals who had no function in the TREM2 gene developed dementia before the age of 40 years. a few years later, said Rosenthal. In addition, patients with reduced activity may triple the risk of Alzheimer's disease, while patients with overexpressed mutations have a lower risk than the general population.
"We think it's a very highly validated target.
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Alector AL002 is an agonist antibody that increases TREM2 signaling, which causes brain microglia to to proliferate and thwart the disease. Meanwhile, AL003 targets the SIGLEC-3 braking control point receiver; Patients with higher levels of expression may have a sevenfold higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Both drugs could complement other products developed in space, such as antibodies that bind to the beta-amyloid plaque "But if microglia do not work, this approach will not work well", a- he said. "We believe that our drug would be beneficial, whether or not there is beta amyloid therapy on the market, if it is, our drug will work in synergy with this therapy."
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To fund Alector's clinical trials, the E round series was supported by a trade union. At least 17 leading investors, including the VC branches of AbbVie, Amgen and Lilly Asia.
Other Investors: GV, Dementia Discovery Fund, Section 32, OrbiMed, Deerfield Management, Polaris Partners, Federated Kaufmann Fund, Euclidean Capital, Foresite Capital, New Leaf Venture Partners, Perceptive Advisors, Casdin Capital, MRL Ventures, Mission Bay Capital and more.
Why stay private? "At this point, with the investor interest we've had during the evolution of the company, we decided that the private tour would be the best option for us," Sabah Oney told FierceBiotech . By taking advantage of the opportunity to finance its portfolio, Alector will be able to continue to exploit its future fundraising options, including through partnerships, additional private tours or a potential buyback to the future as the company continues to grow. Alector started this year with about 35 employees and aims to increase this number to 90 in January.
"There is no urgency on our part to do anything just because everyone does it," said Oney.
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