On 3 April, AXON Neuroscience, a biotechnology company at the forefront of treating and preventing Alzheimer's disease (AD), presented the results of its Phase II trial for AADvac1 at the virtual AAT-AD/PD 2020 conference. AADVac1 is a tau vaccine that functions by priming the immune system to attack and clear damaging tau proteins that accumulate during the development of AD. ADAMANT was designed as a randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled trial, evaluating the safety and efficacy of AADvac1 in participants with mild AD. Axon recruited 196 participants with mild AD from 8 European countries and 163 participants completed the trial.
Findings showed that the ADAMANT trial met its primary endpoint, as AADvac1 was confirmed to be safe and well-tolerated. AADVac1 was also able to induce a robust immune response, with anti-tau antibodies detected in more than 80% of participants receiving the vaccine. Significant results from biomarker tests were also reported. Participants who received AADVac1 showed a reduction in neurofilament light chain (a marker of neurodegeneration) and tau compared to those who received the placebo control. Positive signals from cognitive endpoints were reported in younger ADAMANT participants.
