Name: Innovating Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics: research, treatment, and care
Uploaded: 2023-06-26T06:40:30.022Z
Duration: 358.27
Description: In this video, Steven Gourlay, the CEO and Managing Director of Act Antigen, provides valuable insights into their clinical-stage company's groundbreaking therapy for Alzheimer's disease and depression. Gain valuable insights into the exciting advancements in Alzheimer's disease therapeutics and the potential for improved patient outcomes.

Dr. Gorulay Edited-2.mp4

Dr. Gorulay Edited-2.vtt

Subtitles

{{00:00:05}}
Hello.

{{00:00:06}}
Um, my name is,

{{00:00:07}}
uh, Steve Gole.

{{00:00:08}}
I'm the CEO and

{{00:00:09}}
managing Director of

{{00:00:10}}
act, Inogen Medical.

{{00:00:11}}
We're a clinical stage company

{{00:00:13}}
investigating a promising

{{00:00:15}}
new therapy, which is a once

{{00:00:16}}
a day pill for Alzheimer's

{{00:00:18}}
disease, depression,

{{00:00:19}}
and many other diseases.

{{00:00:31}}
Yeah.

{{00:00:32}}
At Act Antigen we're

{{00:00:33}}
developing a new molecule

{{00:00:34}}
called XY that has a

{{00:00:35}}
unique mechanism of action,

{{00:00:37}}
which is different than

{{00:00:39}}
an anti amyloid antibody

{{00:00:41}}
or an anti-tau antibody.

{{00:00:43}}
It's actually a once a

{{00:00:44}}
day pill that gets into

{{00:00:45}}
the brain at low doses,

{{00:00:48}}
and inhibits a toxic.

{{00:00:50}}
Hormone called cortisol.

{{00:00:52}}
You need normal cortisol

{{00:00:53}}
to have functioning cells

{{00:00:55}}
in the, in your body,

{{00:00:57}}
but as you age, elevated

{{00:00:58}}
levels of cortisol inside

{{00:01:00}}
brain tissue are believed

{{00:01:01}}
to be toxic and associated

{{00:01:03}}
with risk of dementia,

{{00:01:05}}
severity of depression, and

{{00:01:08}}
essentially poor brain health.

{{00:01:10}}
So by retargeting brain

{{00:01:12}}
cortisol with a, with a

{{00:01:13}}
once a day oral pill, we

{{00:01:15}}
reduce cortisol in brain

{{00:01:17}}
tissue, reduce its toxicity.

{{00:01:19}}
And hopefully, as we've

{{00:01:21}}
already seen, improve

{{00:01:22}}
cognition, the ability

{{00:01:23}}
to think and, slow the

{{00:01:25}}
progression or even

{{00:01:26}}
halt the progression

{{00:01:27}}
of Alzheimer's disease.

{{00:01:29}}
So,  that latter point,

{{00:01:30}}
remains to be proven

{{00:01:32}}
definitively in future

{{00:01:33}}
clinical trials, but we

{{00:01:35}}
already have, three separate

{{00:01:36}}
clinical trials showing that

{{00:01:38}}
the drug produces benefit.

{{00:01:41}}
In Alzheimer's disease

{{00:01:42}}
the biology is still poorly

{{00:01:44}}
understood, and that's

{{00:01:45}}
probably the most important

{{00:01:47}}
challenge for the whole field.

{{00:01:49}}
However, I would argue

{{00:01:50}}
that slowly the truth of

{{00:01:54}}
the biology is emerging.

{{00:01:56}}
The amyloid antibodies.

{{00:01:57}}
Now, if they clear an anti

{{00:01:59}}
the, amyloid aggressively,

{{00:02:02}}
we see an improvement in

{{00:02:03}}
patients relatively quickly.

{{00:02:06}}
That improvement still

{{00:02:07}}
doesn't halt progression.

{{00:02:08}}
So there's only a 25

{{00:02:09}}
or 30% slowing of the

{{00:02:11}}
rate of progression.

{{00:02:13}}
So we know that amyloid

{{00:02:14}}
is part of the story,

{{00:02:15}}
but we suspect that

{{00:02:16}}
neuroinflammation,  perhaps,

{{00:02:19}}
insulin resistance,  a

{{00:02:21}}
diabetic related

{{00:02:23}}
issue,  possibly, other

{{00:02:25}}
factors are involved.

{{00:02:27}}
And so the challenge is

{{00:02:28}}
to tease this apart, but

{{00:02:30}}
now we have a number of

{{00:02:31}}
different molecules such

{{00:02:32}}
as our molecules XANINAM,

{{00:02:33}}
which is targeting cortisol.

{{00:02:35}}
But there are other molecules

{{00:02:36}}
targeting different mechanisms

{{00:02:38}}
like the GLP 1 receptor.

{{00:02:41}}
And as these trials read

{{00:02:43}}
out, we should see more

{{00:02:44}}
information about the biology.

{{00:02:46}}
A molecule xani is an

{{00:02:48}}
unusual story for Alzheimer's

{{00:02:50}}
disease because it's

{{00:02:51}}
a very low dose and so

{{00:02:53}}
far it's been very safe.

{{00:02:54}}
Once a day pill.

{{00:02:57}}
In three separate placebo

{{00:02:58}}
controlled clinical

{{00:02:59}}
trials, placebo controlled

{{00:03:01}}
means controlled with

{{00:03:02}}
a randomized allocation

{{00:03:04}}
to a, to a sugar pill.

{{00:03:06}}
We saw benefit in cognition

{{00:03:08}}
in three separate trials

{{00:03:09}}
and a trend towards

{{00:03:10}}
benefit in Alzheimer's

{{00:03:12}}
disease patients where

{{00:03:14}}
there was nearly complete

{{00:03:15}}
slowing of progression

{{00:03:17}}
over a 12 week period.

{{00:03:18}}
In a patient sample set

{{00:03:20}}
of 34 patients, so this

{{00:03:22}}
is very encouraging.

{{00:03:23}}
It's much, three

{{00:03:25}}
separate clinical

{{00:03:25}}
trials showing benefit.

{{00:03:27}}
It's highly unusual in the

{{00:03:28}}
field and suggests that we've

{{00:03:30}}
got a really good chance with

{{00:03:31}}
our much larger phase two

{{00:03:33}}
B study that's coming up,

{{00:03:35}}
to show significant benefit

{{00:03:36}}
and we hope even potentially

{{00:03:39}}
halt disease progression.

{{00:03:41}}
The goal for antigen, our

{{00:03:42}}
company and for others

{{00:03:44}}
working in the field is

{{00:03:45}}
to prove definitively in

{{00:03:48}}
usually several thousand

{{00:03:49}}
people, That the drug

{{00:03:51}}
both works and is safe.

{{00:03:53}}
In our case, we've treated

{{00:03:54}}
more than 300 people and

{{00:03:56}}
we are fairly confident

{{00:03:57}}
at this point about the

{{00:03:58}}
safety profile of the drug.

{{00:04:00}}
Others working in the field

{{00:04:02}}
have done similar, similar

{{00:04:03}}
sized to safety databases, but

{{00:04:06}}
we work in conjunction with

{{00:04:07}}
the fda, the TGA in Australia,

{{00:04:10}}
the European regulators

{{00:04:12}}
to,  develop and agree on

{{00:04:14}}
the final, what we call

{{00:04:16}}
pivotal phase three clinical

{{00:04:18}}
trials that will be used

{{00:04:20}}
to design, the drug label

{{00:04:22}}
that instructs physicians

{{00:04:23}}
how to use the drug and gets

{{00:04:24}}
the drug approved in the end.

{{00:04:26}}
So it's a very

{{00:04:26}}
collaborative business.

{{00:04:27}}
We work with various different

{{00:04:29}}
regulators around the world.

{{00:04:31}}
We, cooperatively agree on how

{{00:04:33}}
we're gonna measure progress

{{00:04:34}}
or, or halting progress in

{{00:04:36}}
Alzheimer's disease and how

{{00:04:38}}
we're going to assess safety,

{{00:04:40}}
and other factors involved

{{00:04:41}}
in the drug development.

{{00:04:42}}
So it's highly regulated,

{{00:04:44}}
and this is a good thing for

{{00:04:45}}
safety but the regulators

{{00:04:48}}
all around the world

{{00:04:49}}
are trying very hard.

{{00:04:50}}
To encourage us to accelerate

{{00:04:53}}
our drug development and

{{00:04:54}}
bring  new therapies to

{{00:04:55}}
patients, the future of

{{00:04:57}}
Alzheimer's, I think, is a

{{00:05:00}}
little bit like when H I V

{{00:05:04}}
was present in the 1980s and

{{00:05:05}}
AZT first came on the market.

{{00:05:09}}
It was somewhat

{{00:05:10}}
effective but toxic.

{{00:05:11}}
And I think this is where we

{{00:05:13}}
are with Alzheimer's disease.

{{00:05:14}}
We're just at the beginning.

{{00:05:15}}
Where we're starting to get

{{00:05:17}}
with the amyloid therapies

{{00:05:19}}
are slightly effective, A

{{00:05:21}}
little bit toxic therapy

{{00:05:23}}
that can be improved on.

{{00:05:24}}
Different mechanisms can be

{{00:05:26}}
used to treat the disease,

{{00:05:27}}
possibly multiple medications

{{00:05:29}}
will be used to treat the

{{00:05:30}}
disease and it will go from

{{00:05:33}}
a progressive and fatal

{{00:05:34}}
disease as HIV was in the

{{00:05:36}}
80s to a treatable and

{{00:05:39}}
completely controllable

{{00:05:41}}
disease as HIV is currently.

{{00:05:43}}
That is the hope, and I

{{00:05:44}}
do think it's realistic.

{{00:05:45}}
I think within 10 years or so,

{{00:05:48}}
that is the place we should

{{00:05:49}}
be confident of getting to.

Expert Insight

In this video, Steven Gourlay, the CEO and Managing Director of Act Antigen, provides valuable insights into their clinical-stage company's groundbreaking therapy for Alzheimer's disease and depression. 

Gain valuable insights into the exciting advancements in Alzheimer's disease therapeutics and the potential for improved patient outcomes.

Dementia

Healthcare

Future of alternatives

thumbnail_1644200343741.jpg

1644200343741.jpg

Dr Steven Gourlay

CEO & Managing Director

Actinogen medical innovative approaches

Key challenges and unmet needs in the current landscape of Alzheimer's Disease therapeutics

Promising findings in Actinogen Medical's small molecule therapeutics for Alzheimer's Disease