In January of 2010, Acumen licensed to Merz Pharmaceuticals, GmbH an innovative drug development program and know-how originated by Acumen and technology in-licensed by Acumen from Northwestern University and the University of Southern California. The license provides Merz certain exclusive global drug development, manufacturing and marketing rights in exchange for upfront and milestone payments to Acumen as well as royalties on future product sales. The drug technology is based on Acumen’s pioneering work on the toxic ß-amyloid protein species that appear very early in dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. As such, the technology holds great potential in the quest for disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

In January of 2004, Acumen partnered with Merck & Co. for the exclusive development and commercialization of anti-ADDL antibodies and ADDL diagnostic technologies.

Acumen has successfully transferred to Merck know-how and intellectual property in-licensed by Acumen from Northwestern University and the University of Southern California, and know-how and intellectual property generated by Acumen since the company was founded in 1996.

Acumen has the ability to use know-how and intellectual property generated in the Merck collaboration for small molecule and vaccine programs. As Merck’s programs advances Acumen is eligible for certain milestone and royalty payments.

Since founding in 1996, Acumen has had an excellent relationship with Northwestern University, particularly with the lab of Dr. William Klein, one of Acumen’s founders. His collaboration with Dr. Grant Krafft, then a faculty member of Evanston Northwestern Hospital and currently Acumen’s Chairman and Chief Science Advisor, and Dr. Caleb Finch of the University of Southern California resulted in the discovery and characterization of ADDLs.

Acumen has sponsored research in the Klein lab focused on elucidating the ADDL disease mechanism, identifying receptor and signaling pathways, and validating targets for therapeutic intervention. Over the past dozen years, the Klein lab has generated a number of seminal papers on ADDLs and has been instrumental in changing the “plaques vs. tangles” focus of Alzheimer’s research to an ADDL focus.