AC Immune Gets 2nd Milestone Payment Of CHF 24.6 Mln From Janssen On JNJ-2056 ReTain Study; Stock Up

(RTTNews) - AC Immune SA (ACIU), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, Tuesday said it will receive the second milestone payment of CHF 24.6 million from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company. AC Immune shares were rising more than 5 percent in pre-market.

The milestone payment follows the rapid rate of prescreening in the Phase 2b ReTain study evaluating JNJ-2056 (previously called ACI-35.030) for the treatment of pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's disease. With this payment, the total milestone payment received for JNJ-2056 related to this trial comes to CHF 40 million.

The Phase 2b ReTain trial is a potentially registration-enabling study in participants with pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's disease to assess the clinical effect of active immunization with JNJ-2056.

"In these challenging financial markets, this milestone payment adds to our already solid financial position, providing us with three years of cash for operations, in which time we expect to achieve several potentially transformational milestones," said Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune.

AC Immune stock had closed at $3.27, up 2.83 percent on Monday. It has traded in the range of $2.20 - $5.14 in the last 1 year.