LAUSANNE, Switzerland, March 27, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AC Immune SA (NASDAQ: ACIU), a Swiss-based, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a broad pipeline focused on neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that Life Molecular Imaging (LMI, formerly Piramal Imaging) together with its collaboration partners will present new data on 18F-PI-2620, a novel next generation investigational Tau PET-tracer, at the 14th International Conference on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases (AD/PDTM), taking place March 26th-31st in Lisbon.

The progression of Tau pathology has been shown to be closely associated with neuronal loss, neurodegeneration, and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. AC Immune discovered investigational Tau PET tracers using its MorphomerTM small molecule discovery platform.

LMI is developing 18F-PI-2620 for detection of the two isoforms of Tau aggregates in AD and Non-AD Tauopathies that are characterized by different Tau isoforms (3R and 4R) 18F-PI-2620 has potential applications as a diagnostic agent to confirm and monitor disease progression as well as responses to treatment. Due to its excellent signal-to-background ratio, 18F-PI-2620 has the potential to detect Tau deposits in early stages of AD. To date, no Tau tracer has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the evaluation of AD or other tauopathies.

"We are particularly pleased that 18F-PI-2620 depicts the characteristic Tau-deposition pattern in patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)" said Prof. Andrea Pfeifer, Ph.D., CEO of AC Immune. "18F-PI-2620's unique feature of low off-target binding and detection of 4R tauopathies, such as PSP, allow us to pursue precision medicine, enabling more effective development of therapeutics for patients suffering from this life-threatening NeuroOrphan disease, for which there is no treatment or cure."

The following presentations on 18F-PI-2620 will be provided at the AD/PD conference by scientists from Life Molecular Imaging and its collaboration partners:

Determination of the optimal scanning time for the assessment of Tau deposition in Alzheimer's Disease using PI-2620 PET

Date: March 29, 2019 | 10.30 - 10.45 am WET
Location: Auditorium III+IV
Presenter: Oral presentation by A. Stephens

18F-PI-2620 Tau-PET in progressive supranuclear palsy - a multi-center evaluation

Date: March 31 | 14.00 - 14.15 pm WET
Location: Auditorium VI+VII
Presenter: Oral presentation by T. Van Eimeren

Evaluation of Tau deposition in amyloid positive MCI or mild-AD dementia subjects from the elenbecestat MissionAD program using 18F-PI-2620 PET

Date: March 27-28 | 6.00 - 16.00 pm WET
Location: Exhibition
Presenter: Poster presentation by A. Stephens

Under the 2014 agreement LMI has exclusive global rights for clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization of Tau-PET tracers resulting from the joint discovery and development collaboration. In exchange, AC Immune is eligible for milestone payments on development milestones and tiered royalties on sales.

About AC Immune 
AC Immune SA is a Nasdaq-listed clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which aims to become a global leader in precision medicine for neuro-degenerative diseases. The Company is utilizing two proprietary discovery platforms, SupraAntigenTM and MorphomerTM, to design, discover and develop small molecule and biological therapeutics as well as diagnostic products intended to diagnose, prevent and modify neurodegenerative diseases caused by misfolding proteins. The Company's pipeline features nine therapeutic and three diagnostic product candidates, with five currently in clinical trials. It has collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies including Roche/Genentech, Lilly and Janssen.

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