AbbVie Dumps An Early-Alzheimer's Candidate Developing In Collaboration With Alector

AbbVie Inc ABBV has decided to terminate the CD33 collaboration program with Alector Inc ALEC, developing AL003 for Alzheimer’s disease as one of two programs under the co-development and option agreement.
As previously disclosed, Alector was reviewing the next steps for the AL003 program.
In November last year, Alector presented Phase 1 AL003 data at the annual Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease conference.
The data provided early evidence that the candidate is well tolerated up to once-monthly intravenous doses of 15 mg/kg and engages the transmembrane receptor CD33 in both blood and central nervous system compartments.
Two healthy volunteers experienced serious side effects at higher doses:
- One participant (AL003 30 mg/kg) reported aseptic arthritis of the hip 15 days after receiving the study drug and required hospitalization and treatment with oral corticosteroids for four days.
- One participant (AL003 60 mg/kg) reported severe hypersensitivity characterized by rash, fever, thrombocytopenia, and elevated c-reactive protein nine days after receiving the study drug. The participant required hospitalization and treatment with oral corticosteroids, analgesics, and antihistamines.
- The AE of hypersensitivity in the 60 mg/kg cohort met the protocol-defined criteria for dose-limiting adverse events and led to the discontinuation of further enrollment in this cohort.
Price Action: ABBV shares are up 1.45% at $154.20, and ALEC shares are down 2.87% at $11.16 during the market session on the last check Friday.