Anavex Life Sciences Highlights Oral Alzheimer’s Drug Blarcamesine, Precision Strategy at JPM Conference

Anavex Life Sciences (NASDAQ:AVXL) outlined its strategy to develop oral, precision-medicine therapies for central nervous system (CNS) diseases during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, with President and CEO Christopher Missling emphasizing the company’s focus on upstream disease mechanisms, including restoration of autophagy, rather than targeting downstream pathological features.

Company focus and lead program

Missling said Anavex aims to “fix wrong things at the start” of the reaction cascade in neurodegenerative disease. The company’s lead candidate, blarcamesine, is a once-daily oral small molecule that activates the sigma-1 receptor and is intended to enhance autophagy and restore cellular homeostasis.

According to Missling, impaired autophagy occurs upstream of amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau accumulation and may precede the neurodegenerative process in Alzheimer’s disease. While he said Aβ and tau remain valuable biomarkers and are incorporated into Anavex’s trials, he argued that autophagy impairment is closer to the origin of the disease process.

Phase IIb/III results and biomarker observations

Missling highlighted results from what he described as a Phase IIb/III clinical trial in early Alzheimer’s disease. He said blarcamesine demonstrated a significant slowing of “patient-relevant cognitive decline,” reporting a 36.3% benefit at 48 weeks and up to 49.8% in a pre-specified patient population at 48 weeks on a primary cognitive endpoint using ADAS-Cog13.

On safety, Missling said the trial showed a “very solid safety profile,” with no associated neuroimaging adverse events and no deaths in the trial, which he said also extended into the open-label extension study. He added that titration reduced dizziness, which he characterized as the major adverse event observed and described as manageable. He also said the long-term extension study supported the safety profile over four years.

He also pointed to biomarker findings, including significantly slowed brain volume loss (atrophy) in the active-treatment arm and a significant effect on the Aβ42 plasma ratio. He described MRI findings as dose-dependent reductions in brain volume loss across multiple regions, including total gray matter and several lobes, framing those changes as evidence of a potential effect on neurodegeneration.

Precision medicine approach and genetic subgroups

Missling said Anavex is pursuing a precision medicine framework in Alzheimer’s disease, drawing an analogy to oncology. He noted that sigma-1 receptor expression is lower in Alzheimer’s patients than in healthy individuals based on PET imaging, and said blarcamesine is a selective sigma-1 agonist with published evidence of dose-dependent receptor engagement.

He described differential clinical responses in patients with the sigma-1 “wild-type” genotype, which he said represents roughly 70% of the population, compared with individuals with certain sigma-1 variants. He emphasized that the sigma-1 mutation discussed is a random missense variant and “not like APOE4,” which is a risk gene.

Missling also discussed an additional genetic factor, COL24A1, describing data for a combined subgroup of sigma-1 wild-type and COL24A1 wild-type patients. In this cohort, he said the 30 mg dose group showed an 84.7% clinical benefit versus placebo on ADAS-Cog13, and a 75.2% difference versus placebo on CDR-SB sum of boxes. He characterized these as clinically meaningful effect sizes and suggested the trajectory approached what he described as “normal aging profiles.”

Patient access, quality of life, and delivery format

Missling repeatedly emphasized the practical benefits of an oral, once-daily therapy for Alzheimer’s patients and caregivers. He cited survey findings indicating a strong preference among patients and caregivers for oral dosage forms for disease-modifying Alzheimer’s drugs, and said patients often have a high propensity to avoid leaving their home environment.

He also discussed quality-of-life measurements included in the trial. He described a quality-of-life scale covering domains such as physical well-being, mood, memory, relationships, and daily activities, and said the study showed a trend in the intention-to-treat population. He further stated that certain genetic groups, including APOE3, showed significant improvement over placebo and that quality of life was “above baseline” after 48 weeks of treatment.

From an implementation perspective, Missling said an oral approach could simplify care by reducing the need for PET scans, MRIs, lumbar punctures, or infusion-center coordination, which he said could benefit patients, caregivers, and physicians.

Regulatory interactions, pipeline expansion, and financial position

Missling said the company is in discussions with regulators in key markets to determine potential pathways toward marketing authorization for blarcamesine. He identified Europe as the most advanced interaction, stating Anavex is pursuing a re-examination with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for blarcamesine in Alzheimer’s disease, with activity beginning in the first quarter of the year.

Beyond Alzheimer’s disease, Missling outlined additional development plans:

• Parkinson’s disease dementia: Completed a Phase II study and plans to proceed with a larger trial, described as longer than six months.
• Rett syndrome: Continued development in a rare disease setting.
• Fragile X syndrome: Plans to start a study during the year and described an EEG biomarker submitted for publication that he said correlates with pathology in animals and is confirmed in humans.
• Infantile spasms and Angelman syndrome: Cited “very solid preclinical data” and potential to advance.
• Anavex 3-71: An oral candidate with a recently completed Phase II schizophrenia study that Missling described as having solid data; he said the company plans to advance the program. He also noted orphan designation for frontotemporal dementia and preclinical data in Alzheimer’s disease.

Missling also referenced planned and submitted publications, including work he described as related to “Precision Medicine A-beta clearance” and COL24A1 and response to blarcamesine.

On finances, he said the company’s last reported cash position was about $120 million, with more than three years of runway based on current utilization, and no debt. He attributed part of the company’s funding approach to non-dilutive support, specifically thanking the International Rett Foundation and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He also said the company has intellectual property protection in key markets extending to 2040.

In a Q&A discussion, Missling reiterated that blarcamesine is intended to activate sigma-1 receptors to restore cellular homeostasis and autophagy, and said Anavex’s commercial positioning is based on offering a potentially safe and accessible upstream approach for a complex disease where other trial programs have recently failed. Asked whether treatment would require pre-symptomatic patients, he said the Phase IIb/III trial enrolled early Alzheimer’s patients with MMSE scores from 20 to 28, and that earlier studies also included mild-to-moderate patients.

About Anavex Life Sciences (NASDAQ:AVXL)

Anavex Life Sciences Corp is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutics for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The company applies a proprietary drug discovery platform that targets sigma‐1 and muscarinic receptors to modulate cellular stress pathways and support neuronal function. Headquartered in New York City, Anavex is dedicated to advancing treatments for neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases with high unmet medical need.

The company’s lead product candidate, blarcamesine (ANAVEX2‐73), is a small‐molecule activator of the sigma‐1 receptor currently being evaluated in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease dementia.