Days after JCR Pharmaceuticals signed a deal with AstraZeneca’s rare disease unit, the Japanese biopharma has secured a $555 million biobucks pact with Alzheimer’s-focused Acumen Pharmaceuticals.
The collaboration will involve pairing JCR’s blood-brain barrier-penetrating platform, dubbed J-Brain Cargo, with Acumen’s amyloid beta oligomer (AβO)-selective antibodies such as sabirnetug. These antibodies target toxic AβOs, which are believed to play a key pathological role in the neurodegenerative disease.
Massachusetts-based Acumen is currently evaluating sabirnetug in a phase 2 study of patients with early Alzheimer’s disease, with a topline readout pencilled in for late in 2026.
As well as an undisclosed upfront payment, this morning's deal means JCR could be in line for another payday if Acumen takes up its option to develop and commercialize up to two drugs resulting from the collaboration. Development milestones tied to the deal could reach $40 million along with up to $515 million in sales-based milestones, plus tiered royalties.
“This collaboration with JCR allows us to explore a powerful new approach to delivering therapies directly to the brain,” Acumen CEO Daniel O’Connell said in the July 15 release. “By pairing our AβO-selective antibody expertise with JCR’s J-Brain Cargo platform, we have the potential to advance a differentiated therapeutic that could change the treatment paradigm for people living with Alzheimer’s disease.”
The J-Brain Cargo tech is designed to deliver therapies to the central nervous system via receptor-mediated transcytosis. This process involves a receptor on gatekeeper cells of the brain endothelium capturing the target macromolecule, traveling through the blood-brain barrier and then releasing the payload.
“By combining our J-Brain Cargo platform with Acumen’s novel, AβO-selective antibodies, we aim to overcome the challenge of delivering biologics to the brain, which has limited progress in treating neurodegenerative disease safely and effectively,” JCR CEO Shin Ashida said in the July 15 release.
“This collaboration not only advances a promising approach in Alzheimer’s but also reinforces J-Brain Cargo as a clinically validated, scalable platform for CNS drug development,” Ashida added.
The tech caught the attention of Alexion back in 2023, which began collaborating with JCR on a potential blood-brain barrier-penetrating neurodegenerative disease therapy. The AstraZeneca rare disease unit went on to work with JCR on discovering oligonucleotide therapies and—last week—penned an adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid pact.
JCR already markets a range of therapies in its home territory of Japan. They include Izcargo, an enzyme replacement treatment for the genetic disorder Hunter syndrome that was the first approved therapy to use the J-Brain Cargo platform, as well as the growth hormone Growject.