BioArctic and University of Oslo Sign Research Agreement to Investigate Apolipoprotein E as a Drug Target for Alzheimer's Disease

STOCKHOLM, June 29, 2020  /PRNewswire/ -- BioArctic AB (publ) (Nasdaq Stockholm: BIOA B) and University of Oslo, Institute of Clinical Medicine (IKM), announced today that they have signed a research collaboration agreement to increase the understanding of Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) as a drug target for Alzheimer's disease. BioArctic will provide financial support for a two-year research position, with potential extension, and Professor Lars Nilsson at the Department of Pharmacology will be heading the research project at University of Oslo.     

Apolipoprotein E is the major genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's disease. The goals of the collaboration are to understand the mechanistic involvement of Apolipoprotein E in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis, and to generate pharmacological efficacy data with drug candidates. In the end, BioArctic hopes to be able to use the findings of the research collaboration to offer Alzheimer's disease patients improved quality of life through better pharmacological treatment. 

"Alzheimer's patients today lack disease modifying treatments. At BioArctic, we are committed to changing that and helping patients improve their quality of life. We have several potential drug candidates in different stages of development, with BAN2401 in phase 3 as the most advanced," said Gunilla Osswald, CEO of BioArctic. "We are very happy about the collaboration with the University of Oslo, and hope that it will help to further increase the mechanistic understanding of ApoE in Alzheimer's disease. The goal is that the collaboration will strengthen our research on ApoE as a target protein (project name AD1801) and to contribute to the development of a new treatment that can be used by itself or in combination with other therapies."

"ApoE has been little explored for drug development in spite of being a key protein in Alzheimer's disease biology. I am looking forward to collaborate with the skilled scientists at BioArctic on this interesting project," said Professor Lars Nilsson.

This information was submitted for publication at 8:30 a.m. CET on June 29, 2020.

Notes to editors

About Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is the estimated cause of 50-60% of all dementia cases and thus the most common dementia condition with adult onset. The death of neurons in the brain causing a progressive deterioration of memory and cognitive skills, such as intellectual ability, language, orientation, recognition and learning ability characterizes the disease. The disease development in Alzheimer's disease starts several years before the patient shows any clinical symptoms. The disease development is progressive, which means that the symptoms gradually worsen with time impairing the quality of life for the patients as well as their families. At late disease stages, the patients demand comprehensive nursing which means great costs for society. A disease modifying treatment, aimed at halting, or slowing down the disease progression, therefore needs introduction prior to advanced brain degeneration.^[1] 

About University of Oslo (UiO)

UiO is the highest ranked institution of education and research in Norway - and one of the World's Top 100 universities, according to the Shanghai World Ranking. With five Nobel Prize winners, UiO has a strong track-record of pioneering research and scientific discovery. As a classical university with a broad range of academic disciplines, UiO has top research communities in most areas. Moreover, UiO currently has nine National Centres of Excellence and a strategic focus on interdisciplinary research in the field of energy and life sciences in particular. www.uio.no/english/  

About BioArctic AB

BioArctic AB (publ) is a Swedish research-based biopharma company focusing on disease-modifying treatments and reliable biomarkers and diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. BioArctic focuses on innovative treatments in areas with high unmet medical needs. The company was founded in 2003 based on innovative research from Uppsala University, Sweden. Collaborations with universities are of great importance to the company together with its strategically important global partners in the Alzheimer (Eisai) and Parkinson (AbbVie) projects. The project portfolio is a combination of fully funded projects run in partnership with global pharmaceutical companies and innovative in-house projects with significant market- and out-licensing potential. BioArctic's B-share is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Mid Cap (ticker: BIOA B). For more information about BioArctic, please visit www.bioarctic.com.

For more information, please contact:

Gunilla Osswald, CEO, BioArctic AB
E-mail: gunilla.osswald@bioarctic.se 
Tel: +46 8 695 69 30

Oskar Bosson, VP Communications and Investor Relations, BioArctic AB
E-mail: oskar.bosson@bioarctic.se
Tel: +46 704 10 71 80

^[1] World Alzheimer Report - Alzheimer's Disease International, 2018, https://www.alz.co.uk/research/world-report-2018

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