Challenge:
Alacrita was engaged by a strategic investor to conduct initial due diligence on a novel observation and potential product opportunity in Alzheimer’s disease.
Solution:
Alacrita’s Alzheimer's disease consultant reviewed the data available, both published and unpublished, and interviewed the client to clarify his understanding of the dataset.
The experimental data generated at the time of the due diligence exercise were intriguing and presented convincing evidence that the target molecules could be playing a role in Alzheimer’s disease pathology. The work had been conducted in transgenic mice but the therapeutic and diagnostic relevance of the data was not yet proven. Our opinion was that the biological insights could not yet be linked to Alzheimer’s progression and explained to the client that the path to generating convincing data would be long and expensive, probably requiring a large clinical trial. The therapeutic opportunities were not clear, with longer in vivo studies in a wider range of Alzheimer’s disease models to establish even preliminary proof of concept. The competitive landscape revealed a fairly large number of mainly early stage therapeutic approaches, with diagnostic potential of the technology needing to compete with CSF and amyloid level analysis and imaging technologies.
Moreover, the risk benefit balance was not convincing, with both diagnostic and therapeutic applications of the technology potentially exposing patients to risks of serious adverse events, some of which could be severe.
Our due diligence report recommended that the client proceed with caution given the very high levels of uncertainty around the science, the challenge of demonstrating specificity and selectivity as a diagnostic and the exploratory nature of the therapeutic nature of the program.
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We regularly consult with clients developing CNS therapeutics, as well as advise investors and BD teams on individual assets, pipelines and companies in this field. For more details on our expertise, please visit the below page or reach out.
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Alacrita's due diligence consultants have been a trusted source of pharma and biotech DD for over 15 years, underpinned by our ability to ensure each due diligence exercise is supported by individuals with the precise industry expertise required to be thorough, complete and accurate.