UK biotech group raises £48mn for Alzheimer’s research

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A UK biotech company exploring new ways of treating Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases has raised £48mn ($61mn) in its first big funding round.

Although AstronauTx does not expect any of its drugs to reach clinics for at least three or four years, the financing is a step towards helping millions of sufferers.

According to the World Health Organization, 55mn people worldwide have dementia and there are almost 10mn new cases every year, making it one of the most pressing global health problems.

The company was spun out of University College London in 2019, with seed funding from the £250mn Dementia Discovery Fund.

The fund was set up by the government in partnership with industry and the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK to invest in innovative approaches to tackling the disease.

Several international funds took part in the Series A round, which was led by Novartis Venture Fund and includes follow-on investment by the Dementia Discovery Fund. AstronauTx’s previous financing amounted to £11mn.

As its name suggests, the company was originally founded to reset the behaviour of astrocytes, support cells in the brain that play a vital role in keeping neurons healthy. Neurons are the fundamental units of the brain and nervous system.

By preventing the deterioration of astrocytes in neurodegenerative disease, AstronauTx scientists expect to keep neurons functioning well for longer.

While astrocytes were still an important part of the company’s research, the company had extended into a wider drive to fending off the symptoms of dementia in the face of neurodegeneration, said David Reynolds, chief executive of AstronauTx. 

“We focus on different areas of biology to keep the brain functioning well during the 24-hour cycle,” he said. “During the day, we want to improve the function of neural networks and boost the metabolism that makes the neurons talk to each other as efficiently as possible.”

Then, at night, the brain not only consolidates memories but also clears out waste products that build up during the day. AstronauTx aims to make the clearance process more efficient to reduce the accumulation of toxic proteins such as tau and amyloid that are implicated in neurodegeneration.

“Our treatments will be oral drugs, applicable across multiple neurodegenerative conditions with both acute and chronic benefits,” said Ruth McKernan, co-founder and chair of AstronauTx.

The company aimed to select its first lead compound for pre-clinical development in a year with clinical trials taking place between three to four years in the future, Reynolds said. It means AstronauTx’s first products are not likely to be on the market until the 2030s.

Within the past year, two antibody-based drugs, donanemab from Eli Lilly and lecanemab from Biogen and Eisai, have proven in clinical trials to slow memory loss and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, by removing amyloid protein from the brain. But both have to be administered by infusion and neither comes close to being a cure for dementia.

“Our products will be complementary to the amyloid-lowering therapies,” said Reynolds. “They will clear out not only amyloid but a whole range of toxins.”

AstronauTx is one of the Dementia Discovery Fund’s 17 active investments. “These companies are collectively pursuing drug discovery programmes against more than 40 different biological mechanisms across a range of neurodegenerative diseases that lead to dementia,” said Lawrence Barker, a partner in the fund.