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AC Immune SA

AC Immune raises CHF 21 million in private financing round

Ecublens/Lausanne (ots)

AC Immune, a Swiss biotech company
developing innovative therapies against Alzheimer's disease, today
announced that it has successfully completed its round B financing
raising CHF 21 million from private and strategic investors. The
financing goal of CHF 21 millions was achieved with 2/3 of the
invested capital contributed by new investors.
AC immune is focused on new therapies for the treatment of
Alzheimer's disease using vaccination or passive immunization with
antibodies. Both the active and passive immunotherapy is directed
against the beta amyloid protein which misfolds and forms plaques in
Alzheimer's disease. The patent-protected antigen technology of AC
Immune provides highly efficient immunization and solubilization of
the plaques by inducing transition from the insoluble to the soluble
from of the beta amyloid protein. AC Immune's pipeline comprises 3
compounds entering in clinical development in 2006/2007. The latest
financing provides the funds to complete Phase I of at least one
molecule in development.
"After obtaining encouraging results in animal studies showing the
unique features of AC Immune's immunotherapeutic approach, we are
very excited to move into the next phase of testing our lead
molecules for clinical submission", said Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC
Immune.
"There is an outstanding market opportunity in Alzheimer's and
conformational diseases, said Martin Velasco, Chairman of the Board
of AC Immune. "Our investors and management share a common vision to
leverage AC Immune's innovative approach in order to efficiently
bring therapeutic solutions to the market."
The successful financing was built on the continuous trust of both
existing and new investors in the company's technological edge, its
intellectual property and the management capability to lead the
company from preclinical into clinical development.
About AC Immune
AC Immune is a privately held company focusing on the development
of therapies against Alzheimer's disease, a so-called conformational
disease. AC Immune is using its proprietary immunology platform to
develop active and passive immunotherapies, i.e. vaccine and
monoclonal antibodies, against Alzheimer's disease, directly reducing
the toxic ss-amyloid plaques in the brain. AC Immune's proprietary
immunology platform technology brings the ability to break the immune
tolerance to "self" proteins by generating conformation-sensitive
antibodies that lead to the creation of active and passive immune
therapies. The company's products are in the preclinical stage and
the first product will enter clinical phase I in 2006.
The company was founded in February 2003 in Basel, Switzerland.
Our team of experienced managers and scientists is located in
Ecublens, Switzerland, and in the laboratories at the Institut de
Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS) in Strasbourg,
France.
AC Immune's intellectual property is based on research performed
by Claude Nicolau, Ph.D., founder and an international leader in
cellular biophysics, and Jean-Marie Lehn, Ph.D., Nobel Prize winner
in Chemistry, Collège de France, Paris and Université Louis Pasteur,
Strasbourg, and specialist in molecular recognition and
supramolecular chemistry.
AC Immune works closely with large pharma companies and is seeking
strategic alliances for the development of its vaccine- and
antibody-based Alzheimer's drugs.
Internet: http://www.acimmune.com

Contact:

Dr. Andrea Pfeifer
CEO
AC Immune
Phone: +41/21/693'91'22
E-mail: andrea.pfeifer@acimmune.com

A photo portrait of Dr. Andrea Pfeifer is available from
Violaine Dällenbach, Rochat & Partners
Phone: +41/22/718'37'42
E-Mail: vdallenbach@rochat-pr.ch