European Biotechs Impacting Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Dementia affects more than 55 million people worldwide, with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) accounting for approximately 70% of cases.¹ By 2050, it is estimated that around 130 million people could suffer from AD, driven by an ageing global population. Approximately 7% of people over age 65 have dementia, and prevalence rises sharply with age, often doubling every five to six years after age 65.²A large proportion of dementia cases remain undiagnosed; new diagnostic tests are under development that could help speed up diagnosis and patient access to approved and emerging AD treatments^3.4 Eli Lilly has developed a telehealth platform, LillyDirect, to expand access and potentially improve early diagnosis and treatment uptake.⁵ AD and dementia impose enormous societal and healthcare costs worldwide, with urgent calls for better detection, treatment, and care infrastructure.^1.2

Traditional AD treatments, such as Forest Laboratories' orally active Namenda (memantine), a cholinesterase inhibitor, address the symptoms of the disease rather than slow disease progression.⁶ More recently, new disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), such as intravenous (IV) administered anti-amyloid β monoclonal antibodies from Biogen/Eisai’s Leqembi (lecanemab) and Eli Lilly's Kisunla (donanemab), have been approved for early stages of AD with confirmed amyloid pathology.^7.8.9 However, there remains a high unmet need for safer, easy-to-use drugs and therapies targeting non-amyloid/tau pathways. In 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted the supplemental biologics licensure application (BLA) for Leqembi Iqlik (lecanemab-irmb), a subcutaneous autoinjector formulation for once-weekly maintenance dosing in the United States.¹⁰

There has been significant investment in the AD space in recent years, and more than 138 drugs were investigated in 182 clinical trials in 2025. These drugs target a range of novel targets beyond amyloid and tau, including pathways affecting bioenergetics and metabolism, the endocrine system, oxidative stress, synaptic plasticity, and the vasculature (Figure 1).

What AD therapies are the pharma industry investing in?

At present, Biogen, Eli Lilly, and Eisai monopolise the AD market; however, many large pharma firms also run AD programs. For example, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Roche/Genentech are developing anti-amyloid antibodies, posdienmab and trontinemab, respectively.^12.13 Large pharma has been active in licensing assets and co-developing innovative platforms, ranging from anti-tau antibodies to natural killer (NK) cell therapies. Meanwhile, the regulators have published guidance and established frameworks, including FDA Fast Track and European Medicines Agency (EMA) adaptive pathways, to help align drug development and investment in innovative medicines for AD and other areas of unmet medical need.¹⁴

What are some European players to watch out for in the proteasome space?

Several European biotechs are evaluating next-generation anti-amyloid agents, tau and sigma inhibitors. European biotech leading the way include the following.

AC Immune SA (Switzerland) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on novel treatment for neurodegenerative diseases leveraging its clinically validated technology platforms, SupraAntigen and Morphomer. The company is developing a broad range of AD therapies, including ACI-35.030 (JNJ-2056), an anti-pTau active immunotherapy in phase 1b/2a targeting extracellular phosphorylated Tau (pTau), partnered with Janssen Pharmaceuticals; the company published trial data in eBioMedicine, and further data are expected in 1H26.¹⁵ ACI-24.060 targets misfolded Abeta to prevent accumulation and enhance clearance of amyloid plaques in AD and AD in Down syndrome and is currently being evaluated in the ABATE phase 1b/2 with Takeda. Results of this study are due to be released soon.¹⁶

Anavex Life Science Corporation (Germany) focuses on novel small-molecule treatment for central nervous system diseases. Its lead candidate, blarcamesine, is a once-daily oral Sigma-1 receptor modulator that enhances autophagy. The company has filed a new drug application with EMA and FDA based on pivotal ATTENTION-AD and AD-004 trials in early AD, in which it demonstrated significant clinical benefit and slowed brain volume loss compared with the intent-to-treat population.¹⁷ In December 2025, the company requested a re-examination of the EMA's refusal of its marketing authorization because “the main study failed to demonstrate effectiveness and safety of blarcamesine in patients with early AD who do not have a mutation in the SIGMAR1 gene”.¹⁸

Asceneuron SA (Switzerland) is a clinical-stage biotech company developing small molecules targeting tau protein aggregation. In July 2024, it completed a $100 million Series C financing round led by Novo Holdings, with new investment from EQT Life Sciences–LSP Dementia Fund, OrbiMed, and SR One, alongside existing investors M Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, GSK Equities Investments Limited and Johnson & Johnson Innovation (JJDC, Inc.).The funds were used to advance its lead asset, ASN51, an oral small-molecule drug designed to inhibit OGA, an enzyme implicated in protein aggregation in AD and Parkinson’s disease (PD).¹⁹

BioArtic AB (Sweden) developed Leqembi in conjunction with Eisai, one of the first DMTs for early AD. The drug is now approved in more than 50 countries and continues to show strong sales growth. In September 2025, BioArtic received regulatory approval for monthly IV maintenance treatment in China. Eisai received US approval for Leqembi Iqlik weekly maintenance dosing, using a subcutaneous autoinjector. BioArtic signed a global out-licensing agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for two preclinical AD programmes: BAN1503, an antibody targeting pyroGlu Abeta, and BAN2803, an antibody targeting PyroGlu Abeta combined with BioArtic’s Brain Transporter technology.²⁰

CoCo Therapeutics, a UK biotechnology company, focuses on the treatment of AD by modulating retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARα), as identified in Professor Jonathan Corcoran's research at King's College London.²¹

ReMYND (Belgium) has taken a different approach, targeting septin filaments, which regulate calcium entry into cells. This function is impaired in AD. In September 2025, the company published data from the phase 2a trial, which was halted prematurely due to dose-dependent elevations in liver enzymes that normalized after treatment was stopped.²² The company is developing REN392, a second-generation septin modulator that can help restore neuronal calcium balance, with an optimised safety profile and pharmacokinetic profile.

TauRx Therapeutics (UK/Singapore) are developing small-molecule tau aggregation inhibitors, and their lead programme is hydromethylthionine mesylate (HMTM), which has demonstrated promising results in the phase 3 LUCIDITY in the treatment of mild cognitive impairment in AD.²³

Wren Therapeutics is a spin-off company from the University of Cambridge (UK) and Lund University (Sweden). In January 2021, it closed a £12.4 million ($17 million) financing round; the total capital raised to date is approximately £33 million ($45 million).²⁴ The funds have been used to advance its two misfolding small-molecule programs towards the clinic for the potential treatment of AD and PD.

Competition in the AD field is increasing, and several US biotechs—Alzheon, Annovis Bio, Alpha Cognition, Cognition Therapeutics, Longeveron, Neurodon—have R&D programs in this space and include NKGen Biotech, which is developing troculeucel, the first autologous enhanced NK cell therapy for AD.²⁵ Asia-Pacific activity is growing, and several biotech companies—ADEL, AirBio Co. Ltd, GemVax, Shanghai Hengrui, and Therabest Korea—are developing AD agents and attracting pharma interest. In December 2025, Sanofi signed a US$1.04 billion licensing agreement with Korean biotech ADEL for ADEL-Y01, a tau-targeting antibody for AD.²⁶

Future opportunities in targeting the proteasome

Treatment for AD continues to advance, and innovative biotech companies are now looking beyond anti-amyloid and anti-tau programs to target the underlying causes of neuroinflammation and immune modulation in AD rather than focusing on symptomatic therapies.The global Alzheimer’s drugs market size was valued at US$3.52 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from US$3.69 billion in 2023 to US$5.21 billion by 2030, exhibiting a compound average growth rate of 5.1% due to improvements in diagnosis and the emergence of new DMTs.²⁷ Many large pharma companies, including Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai, Genentech, Janssen, Roche, Sanofi, and Takeda, have already invested in the field, and several pivotal studies are due to report during the next 18 months that could stimulate further investment in this dynamic but high-risk market.

References

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15. Sol, O.; Mermoud, J.; Hallikainen, M.; et al. Safety and Immunogenicity of Two Tau-targeting Active Immunotherapies, ACI-35.030 and JACI-35.054, in Participants with Early Alzheimer's Disease: A Phase 1b/2a, Multicentre, Double-Blind, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Study. eBioMedicine, 2025,120, 105940
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23. TauRx. Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease Publishes Trial Results Showing HMTM Potentially Offers an Accessible Oral Treatment Option for Patients with Early Alzheimer’s Disease. Press Release. Jan. 26, 2026.
24. Cambridge Network. Wren Therapeutics Announces £12.4 Million in Financing. Press Release. Jan. 25, 2021.
25. NKGen Biotech. NKGen Biotech to Present on the Use of Troculeucel for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the XXVII World Congress of Neurology. Press Release. Oct. 6, 2025.
26. PR Newswire. ADEL Signs $1.04 Billion Global License Agreement with Sanofi for ADEL-Y01, a Novel Investigational Alzheimer's Disease Therapy. Press Release. Dec. 15, 2025.
27. Fortune Business Insights. Alzheimer's Drug Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis. Jan. 19, 2026.
    

About the author

Cheryl Barton, PhD, is founder and director of PharmaVision, Pharmavision.co.uk.