Acquisition of diagnostic tracers to enhance understanding of tau protein in Alzheimer’s disease
The company hope that the technology will contribute to the development of therapies to help tackle the disease.
Eli Lilly and Company (IN, USA) has announced that it has acquired two investigational positron emission tomography (PET) tracers from Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. (PA, USA). The tracers are intended to study one of the two known hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, tau tangles, which are a result of misfolding of the tau protein in the brain. Study samples taken at autopsy have illustrated that the amount and location of tau tangles in Alzheimer’s disease is thought to correlate with disease severity. Currently, there are no approved diagnostics to detect tau tangles in living patients, which creates difficulties in studying the progression of the disease as well as the impact of therapeutics.
It is thought that the formation of both amyloid plaques and tau tangles is required for the development of Alzheimer’s disease, with tau playing a secondary but critical role in neuronal toxicity and death. For this reason Lilly will look to focus this technology into its anti-amyloid and anti-tau research and development programs, and state that a tau tangle tracer “could enable tailoring and early-identification of at-risk patients, as well as potentially provide a marker for treatment response.”
“The acquisition of these tau tangle tracers builds on our 25-year commitment of investing in Alzheimer’s disease research and development to bring new medicines to patients facing the terrible consequences of Alzheimer’s disease,” commented Jan M. Lundberg, Executive Vice President of science and technology, and President of Lilly Research Laboratories. “We are hopeful that this technology will both enhance our understanding of tau and its role in Alzheimer’s disease, and contribute to the development of our anti-amyloid and anti-tau-based therapies to treat this disease.”
James Williams, Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Molecular Imaging business unit, added, “PET imaging is a valuable tool in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, and Siemens is committed to helping fight this growing threat to our aging population. Lilly’s continued development of these tau PET tracers combined with Siemens’ ongoing investment in innovative PET imaging solutions is another great example of how Siemens is collaborating with pharmaceutical companies in an effort to provide new hope to patients and their families.”
While financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, Lilly have the option to commercialize the tracers, which will be developed and validated by a team at Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (PA, USA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Lilly.
