AbbVie Walks Away From Parkinson's Drug Pact With BioArctic

AbbVie Inc ABBV has ended a research partnership with Sweden's BioArctic, backing out further development of an experimental Parkinson's disease drug and other related medicines.
A clinicaltrials.gov listing for ABBV-0805 says a Phase I study is "Withdrawn (Strategic considerations)."
The partnership between AbbVie and BioArctic, which began in 2016, was focused on antibody drugs targeting alpha-synuclein. This protein can misfold and accumulate abnormally in the brains of patients with Parkinson's and related dementias.
In 2019, a Phase 1 study of the lead asset, ABBV-0805, was initiated. The results from the study, presented at the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders in September 2021, support a continuation into Phase 2 with once-monthly dosing.
"We are disappointed that AbbVie has taken this decision," CEO Gunilla Osswald said in a prepared statement. "All available data indicates that ABBV-0805 has uniquely high selectivity for the pathological forms of aggregated alpha-synuclein and Phase 1 data supporting progression to Phase 2."
AbbVie terminated its Parkinson's disease agreement with Voyager Therapeutics Inc (VYGR) in August 2020, which focused on alpha synuclein-focused vectorized antibodies.
Price Action: ABBV shares are up 0.74% at $157.51 during the market session on the last check Wednesday.