Alto Neuroscience Adds 'Intriguing' Depression Asset Via Over $100 Million Deal

On Tuesday, Alto Neuroscience, Inc. ANRO announced an asset purchase agreement with Chase Therapeutics Corporation for a portfolio of dopamine agonist drug combinations for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), generally defined as a failure on two or more antidepressants.

Alto paid Chase Therapeutics an upfront payment of $1.75 million. Chase Therapeutics will be eligible for up to $71.5 million in milestone payments, $41 million of the potential future milestone payments are tied to the product candidates’ commercial success.

Alto expects its current cash balance to support planned operations into 2028 through five clinical trial readouts across its pipeline programs.

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The most advanced program, ALTO-207 (formerly known as CTC-501), is a fixed-dose combination of pramipexole, a dopamine D3-preferring D3/D2 agonist, approved for Parkinson’s disease with demonstrated antidepressant effect, and ondansetron, an antiemetic, selective 5-HT3 receptor antagonist.

As a fixed-dose combination, ALTO-207 enables rapid titration and higher dosing by mitigating the dose-limiting adverse events typically experienced with pramipexole.

Phase 2a trial of CTC-501

Chase Therapeutics completed a Phase 2a trial evaluating CTC-501 in 32 patients with depression.

The primary endpoint was achieved in the study. Patients randomized to receive CTC-501 reached a mean dose of 4.1mg per day, with 67% achieving the highest allowable dose of 5mg/day.

CTC-501 was generally well tolerated in the maintenance period of the study.

CTC-501 demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements from baseline compared to placebo on depression symptoms as measured by the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale or MADRS.

CTC-501 also demonstrated significantly greater improvement on the Clinician Global Impression Scale of Severity (CGI-S) compared to placebo.

Alto expects to initiate a Phase 2b trial, designed to be a potentially pivotal study, with ALTO-207 in patients with TRD by mid-2026 and report topline data in 2027.

Phase 2a Trial For CTC-413

ALTO-208 (or CTC-413) is a fixed-dose combination of pramipexole and aprepitant, an antiemetic, neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor antagonist. ALTO-208 is being developed for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Chase Therapeutics completed a blinded Phase 2a trial evaluating CTC-413 in 13 patients with PD.

The mean tolerated dose of CTC-413 significantly exceeded pramipexole. Six subjects (67%) tolerated CTC-413 at the maximum dose of 9.0mg/day, and all but one remained on that dose throughout the final three-month treatment period.

CTC-413 demonstrated favorable safety and tolerability with no unexpected, serious or persistent issues.

William Blair reiterated an Outperform rating on Alto Neuroscience, viewing the acquisition of ALTO-207 as an “intriguing asset.” The firm noted the impressive efficacy of pramipexole in the PAX-D study but also highlighted the possibility of functional unblinding in that study, which may have contributed to the perceived efficacy.

Price Action: ANRO stock is trading higher by 2.31% to $2.66 at last check Tuesday.

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