AC Immune Out Positive On Crenezumab; What Does It Mean?

Shares of AC Immune Ltd (NASDAQ: ACIU), a medical biotechnology company that focuses on the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases, soared higher by more than 23 percent after the company's partner Genentech published an editorial.

AC Immune and Genentech have been teaming up for a decade. The editorial summarized the biology of AD and describes the importance of tau as a target in AD; it can be seen here.

AC Immune is far from the only company dedicated toward combating AD. Shares of Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE: LLY) tumbled in late November after the company announced its AD treatment candidate solanezumab didn't meet the primary endpoint in a late-stage clinical trial dubbed EXPEDITION3.

What Wall Street Thinks Of AC Immune

AC Immune began trading as a public company in late September. Here is a brief recap of what Wall Street analysts were saying once the quiet period ended:

• Credit Suisse: Analysts at Credit Suisse initiated coverage of AC Immune with an Outperform rating and $18 price target. Among some of the bullish reasons to support the stock includes the fact that its AD treatments can continue even if Eli Lilly's own therapy is a "complete fail," since no AD assets are the same and designers differ.
• Jefferies: Analysts at Jefferies initiated coverage of AC Immune with a Buy rating and $25 price target. The analysts noted that the company may have the "broadest" pipeline of drugs to treat AD within the biotech sector,which provides investors with a "multitude of catalysts" by 2018.

At last check, AC Immune shares were down 5.09 percent at $14.17.