AC Immune has outlined a series of clinical milestones expected during the second half of 2026 as its wholly owned Parkinson’s disease programmes and partnered Alzheimer’s disease pipeline continue to advance.

The neuroscience-focused biotechnology company said it expects Phase 2 data from its Parkinson’s disease immunotherapy ACI-7104 later this year, while progress across partnered programmes with Takeda and Lilly has generated milestone payments and extended its cash runway into the fourth quarter of 2027.

The update highlights progress across multiple therapeutic approaches targeting the underlying biology of neurodegenerative diseases, including alpha-synuclein, tau, TDP-43 and neuroinflammation.

Parkinson’s disease programme approaches Phase 2 readout

The company’s lead wholly owned programme, ACI-7104, is an active immunotherapy designed to generate an immune response against pathological alpha-synuclein, a protein closely associated with Parkinson’s disease.

AC Immune said full 104-week data from Part 1 of its ongoing placebo-controlled Phase 2 VacSYn trial are expected during the second half of 2026.

The programme also received a $4 million research grant from The Vijay and Marie Goradia Charitable Foundation to support the extended study.

Previously reported interim data suggested changes in both biomarkers and clinical measures following treatment, with the company planning to use the final dataset to inform future regulatory discussions and subsequent clinical development.

Alongside ACI-7104, AC Immune is progressing ACI-19764, a brain-penetrant NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor aimed at reducing neuroinflammation, with Phase 1 results in healthy volunteers expected later this year.

The company also anticipates Phase 1b data assessing reductions in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in patients with cardiovascular risk factors.

Meanwhile, preliminary Phase 1 findings for ACI-19626, a first-in-class TDP-43 PET tracer designed to visualise TDP-43 pathology in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), demonstrated increased uptake in affected areas of the brain.

Martin Zügel, interim chief executive and chair of AC Immune, said: “AC Immune is moving towards key clinical milestones in two of our wholly-owned programs, a growing focus for AC Immune. These data include full results from Part 1 of the VacSYn trial of ACI-7104, our anti-α-syn active immunotherapy in Parkinson’s disease, as well as initial data from our ACI-19764 trial.”

Partnered programmes continue to deliver

AC Immune’s partnered pipeline also continued to progress during the first half of the year.

The company received a $12 million milestone payment from Takeda after dosing the first participants in the AD4 cohort of the ongoing Phase 1b/2 ABATE trial evaluating ACI-24 in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease.

The additional cohort is assessing whether combining ACI-24 with an adjuvant can enhance the immune response while maintaining the favourable safety profile reported in earlier cohorts.

AC Immune also strengthened its collaboration with Lilly on its Morphomer small molecule programme targeting intracellular tau.

Under the amended agreement, Lilly will continue development of new tau-targeting candidates and potential back-up compounds. The collaboration has already generated an upfront payment of CHF10 million, with the potential for additional development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments as the programme advances.

Multiple catalysts expected before year end

Beyond reporting financial results, AC Immune’s update provides a roadmap for several important neuroscience catalysts expected during the remainder of 2026.

These include final Phase 2 data from the VacSYn Parkinson’s disease trial, Phase 1 and Phase 1b results for its NLRP3 inhibitor programme, and further progress across its partnered Alzheimer’s disease and tau portfolios.

The company ended the first half of the year with cash resources of CHF75.4 million, which it expects will fund operations into the fourth quarter of 2027, excluding any future milestone payments.

While AC Immune continues to maintain a broad portfolio spanning therapeutics and diagnostics, the upcoming Parkinson’s disease data are likely to be among the company’s most closely watched milestones, given growing interest in treatments capable of modifying the underlying biology of neurodegenerative disease.