AbbVie has agreed to acquire a young company with drugmaking technology from Johnson & Johnson and an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease that’s in the first stage of human testing.

AbbVie已同意从强生公司（Johnson＆Johnson）收购一家拥有制药技术的年轻公司，并在人体测试的第一阶段对阿尔茨海默病进行实验性治疗。

The deal, announced Monday, is expected to close by the end of the year, and has AbbVie buying all the outstanding shares of Aliada Therapeutics for $1.4 billion in cash. A private company, Aliada formed in 2021 with seed funding from J&J’s venture arm and the investment firm RA Capital Management.

该交易于周一宣布，预计将于年底完成，AbbVie已以14亿美元现金收购Aliada Therapeutics的所有流通股。Aliada是一家私营公司，成立于2021年，由强生的风险投资部门和投资公司RA Capital Management提供种子资金。

Aliada has a license to a technology J&J scientists created to get drugs across a kind of biological shield that protects the central nervous system. This “blood-brain barrier” is extremely selective about what molecules are allowed to pass through it, and has long been a major obstacle for brain drug developers.

Aliada拥有强生科学家创建的一项技术的许可证，该技术旨在使药物穿过一种保护中枢神经系统的生物屏障。这种“血脑屏障”对允许哪些分子通过它具有极强的选择性，长期以来一直是大脑药物开发人员的主要障碍。

Over the past couple years, large companies like Roche, Biogen and Eisai have licensed tools or medicines meant to overcome this obstacle..

在过去几年中，罗氏（Roche）、Biogen和卫材（Eisai）等大公司已经获得了旨在克服这一障碍的工具或药物的许可。。

AbbVie has marked neuroscience as a “key growth area,” and said in a statement that Aliada’s platform will “enhance discovery and development efforts” there. The technology functions somewhat like a Trojan horse, taking potential medicines that would normally be shut out from the nervous system and attaching them to “delivery molecules.” The carriers are designed to then bind to proteins that can ferry the cargo across the blood-brain barrier..

AbbVie将神经科学列为“关键增长领域”，并在一份声明中表示，Aliada的平台将“加强发现和开发工作”。这项技术的功能有点像特洛伊木马，它可以携带通常被神经系统拒之门外的潜在药物，并将其附着在“传递分子”上。然后，载体被设计成与蛋白质结合，从而可以将货物运送穿过血脑屏障。。

Roopal Thakkar, AbbVie’s chief scientific officer, said that approach will strengthen the company’s research and development capabilities and should help in bringing forward “next-generation therapies for neurological disorders and other diseases where enhanced delivery of therapeutics into the CNS is beneficial.”.

AbbVie首席科学官Roopal Thakkar表示，这种方法将加强公司的研发能力，并应有助于提出“针对神经系统疾病和其他疾病的下一代疗法，其中增强向中枢神经系统的治疗效果是有益的。”。

Net revenue from AbbVie’s line of neuroscience products, which includes Botox, the antipsychotic Vraylar and the migraine medication Ubrelvy, totaled $4.1 billion during the first six months of this year, a more than 15% increase from the same period in 2023.

今年上半年，艾伯维神经科学产品线（包括肉毒杆菌毒素、抗精神病药Vraylar和偏头痛药物Ubrelvy）的净收入总计41亿美元，比2023年同期增长了15%以上。

The Aliada deal also hands AbbVie a clinical-stage Alzheimer’s drug that’s currently in a small study of healthy volunteers. A prevailing theory in Alzheimer’s research is the disease is caused, at least in part, by a toxic buildup of misfolded proteins. Aliada’s drug, known as ALIA-1758, is an antibody targeting a specific form of these “amyloid beta” proteins that are very stable and more prone to clumping together..

Aliada协议还为AbbVie提供了一种临床阶段阿尔茨海默氏病药物，目前正在一项针对健康志愿者的小型研究中。阿尔茨海默病研究中的一个流行理论是，这种疾病至少部分是由错误折叠的蛋白质的有毒堆积引起的。Aliada的药物ALIA-1758是一种针对特定形式的“淀粉样β”蛋白的抗体，这些蛋白非常稳定，更容易聚集在一起。。

To Paul Matteis, an analyst at the investment firm Stifel, the deal is 'interesting for a number of reasons,' one of which is that it 'seemingly offers a vote of confidence in amyloid, just as sentiment in the space is reaching an all-time low.' He was specifically referring to Wall Street investors, who seem to have soured on anti-amyloid therapies after drugs like Aduhelm and Leqembi failed to meet lofty sales expectations..

投资公司Stifel的分析师保罗·马泰斯（PaulMatteis）认为，这笔交易“出于多种原因而很有趣”，其中之一是它“似乎为淀粉样蛋白投下了信任票，而市场人气正创下历史新低。”他特别指的是华尔街投资者，在Aduhelm和Leqembi等药物未能达到崇高的销售预期后，他们似乎对抗淀粉样蛋白疗法产生了不满。。

Another intriguing aspect of the deal, according to Matteis, is it 'arguably creates another formidable competitor' to Denali Therapeutics, which has a technology similar to Aliada's. AbbVie's acquisition reinforces 'the value of brain delivery, broadly speaking,' the analyst wrote in a note to clients..

据Matteis称，该交易的另一个有趣方面是，它“可以说为Denali Therapeutics创造了另一个强大的竞争对手”，Denali Therapeutics拥有类似Aliada的技术。该分析师在给客户的一份报告中写道，AbbVie的收购强化了“大脑输送的价值”。。

Aliada adds to a recent series of acquisitions from AbbVie. In the first half of this year, the company announced it would be buying two immune system specialists, Celsius Therapeutics and Landos Biopharma, for just under $400 million combined. And late last year, it spent $10 billion on cancer drugmaker Immunogen and another $8.7 billion on Cerevel Therapeutics, which is working on an experimental medication similar to Bristol Myers Squibb’s Cobenfy..

Aliada补充了最近从AbbVie进行的一系列收购。今年上半年，该公司宣布将斥资不到4亿美元收购两名免疫系统专家，即Celsius Therapeutics和Landos Biopharma。去年年底，它在癌症药物制造商Immunogen上花费了100亿美元，在Cerevel Therapeutics上花费了87亿美元，该公司正在开发类似于百时美施贵宝（Bristol-Myers Squibb）的Cobenfy的实验药物。。

While large pharmaceutical companies have shown interest in neuroscience, this area of research has seen just three bigger-ticket acquisitions so far this year — a significant dip compared to 2023, according to data compiled by BioPharma Dive.

虽然大型制药公司对神经科学表现出了兴趣，但根据BioPharma Dive汇编的数据，今年迄今为止，这一领域的研究仅取得了三笔更大的收购——与2023年相比大幅下降。

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include analyst commentary.

编者按：这个故事已经更新，包括分析师评论。