AlzeCure Pharma AB (publ) announced that the company has chosen a candidate drug (CD) and started the preclinical development phase with the company's preventive and disease-modifying candidate drug Alzstatin® ACD680. ACD680 is being developed within AlzeCure's Alzstatin platform, with the aim of developing a preventive and disease-modifying drug for the early treatment of Alzheimer's disease. In the project, a CD has now been selected which will continue into the preclinical development program, which includes preclinical safety and tolerability studies, as well as formulation work and stability testing.

In Alzheimer's disease, a protein, amyloid beta (Aß42), accumulates into larger aggregates, such as plaques, which have a harmful effect on nerve cells and their function. ACD680 is a so-called gamma-secretase modulator (GSM), which constitutes a promising class of small-molecule Aß42-lowering anti-amyloidogenic substances for preventive and disease-modifying treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The GSM thereby affects the production of the very building block of the harmful amyloid aggregates and exhibits several key properties that distinguish it from antibody treatments, including that it can be taken in tablet form, easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and can be produced more cost-effectively.