The National Institute on Aging Awards Acumen Pharmaceuticals’ Alzheimer’s Work

South San Francisco, California, September 15, 2005 - The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has awarded Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant to develop novel therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.  Acumen’s focus is targeted to small molecules that inhibit formation of Alzheimer’s disease-causing ADDLs (amyloid-beta derived diffusible ligands).

The NIA grant funds deployment of Acumen’s proprietary ADDL assembly blocker assay to screen a large, diverse library of “drug-like” small molecules to identify leads that block ADDL formation.

“For over ten years Acumen’s scientific founders have developed and received patents for our fundamental scientific understanding of ADDLs,” says Dr. Grant A. Krafft, Founder, Chairman and Chief Science Officer of Acumen Pharmaceuticals. “We have leveraged our extensive understanding to develop innovative research tools to discover novel anti-ADDL therapeutics.  The NIA funding will allow us utilize these tools to discover and develop what we believe will be the first disease modifying therapeutics for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.” 

According to David W. Summa, Acumen’s CEO, “ADDLs are are now widely regarded to be responsible for AD-related memory failure and neurodegeneration. Acumen has developed proprietary, solution-based assays to identify inhibitors of ADDL assembly.”   that will be used to screen for small molecule inhibitors of ADDL assembly. The objective of this research program is to discover first-in-class molecules that are unique because they interfere specifically with the formation of ADDLs.” 

Acumen’s scientists first discovered soluble, nonfibrillar, neurotoxic, oligomeric Aβ 1-42 assemblies in 1995.  They established a new hypothesis for Alzheimer’s disease based on ADDL disruption of synaptic function.  Subsequent research by Acumen’s founders and other internationally acclaimed scientists continues to affirm this hypothesis. 

Acumen’s mission is to discover and develop new therapies and diagnostics for ADDL-related diseases such as mild-cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease eventually may identify ADDL-positive individuals at the earliest stages of memory impairment.

In early 2004, Acumen entered into a partnership with Merck & Co. to develop ADDL-selective therapeutic antibodies and vaccines, and since June 2004, Acumen has implemented small molecule discovery programs targeting ADDL assembly blockers and ADDL receptor antagonists.

Therapies that interfere with ADDLs promise to stop and reverse the memory failure of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment, and an effective ADDL diagnostic eventually may identify ADDL-positive individuals at the earliest stages of memory impairment.

For further information, please contact:
David Summa, President and CEO,
Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
650-875-7700, media@acumenpharm.com;
Or visit Acumen’s website at www.acumenpharm.com.