AbbVie Exercises Exclusive Right to Acquire Mitokinin, Further Strengthening Neuroscience Pipeline

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Oct 05, 2023, 08:05 ET

- Mitokinin's lead compound, a selective PINK1 activator, is designed to address mitochondrial dysfunction, which plays a key role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease

- Activation of PINK1 remediates mitochondrial damage and restores mitochondrial function

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill., Oct. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) announced today that it has exercised its exclusive right and completed the acquisition of Mitokinin, a discovery-stage biotechnology company developing a potentially first-in-class disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson's Disease (PD). Mitokinin's lead compound, a selective PINK1 activator, is designed to address mitochondrial dysfunction that is believed to be a major contributing factor to Parkinson's disease pathogenesis and progression.

PINK1 plays a key role in maintaining a healthy mitochondrial system by facilitating the turnover of dysfunctional mitochondria. Mutations in PINK1 are associated with a loss of PINK1 function and cause familial forms of PD. Activation of PINK1 offers a potentially disease-modifying treatment approach beyond familial PD, by addressing mitochondrial dysfunction and improving mitochondrial health in sporadic PD.

"Parkinson's disease continues to be a major unmet medical need, impacting patients, caregivers and society. With this acquisition, we are excited to grow our neuroscience portfolio and explore a potential new treatment option for PD," said Jonathon Sedgwick, Ph.D., vice president and global head of discovery research, AbbVie. "While current PD treatments may alleviate the symptoms of parkinsonism, there are currently no available therapies that prevent progression of the disease. Targeting PINK1 offers a novel approach that may alter disease pathogenesis."

"Collaboration with AbbVie's world-class Neuroscience and External Innovation teams added significant value and resources to help accelerate the program to investigational new drug (IND) enabling studies," said Daniel de Roulet, co-founder and chief executive officer, Mitokinin.

The role of PINK1 in addressing mitochondrial dysfunction has long been recognized; however, developing selective, brain penetrant PINK1 activators for therapeutic use in PD has been challenging.

"Our pre-clinical data demonstrate that our PINK1 activator compound can selectively enhance the active-form of PINK1, which is found on damaged mitochondria, without impacting PINK-1 regulation broadly," said Nicholas Hertz, Ph.D., co-founder and chief scientific officer, Mitokinin. "We believe this approach could potentially deliver significant clinical benefit to Parkinson's patients."

Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will pay Mitokinin shareholders $110 million at closing for the acquisition of Mitokinin. Mitokinin shareholders remain eligible for potential additional payments of up to $545 million upon the achievement of certain development and commercial milestones related to the success of the PINK1 program, plus tiered royalties based on net sales.

About AbbVie
AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube.

About Mitokinin
Mitokinin was founded in 2013 based on technology discovered by scientific co-founders Nicholas Hertz and Kevan Shokat at UCSF. Investors include Mission BioCapital, Pfizer Ventures, and Samambaia Investments.

AbbVie Forward-Looking Statements
Some statements in this news release are, or may be considered, forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project" and similar expressions and uses of future or conditional verbs, generally identify forward-looking statements. AbbVie cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, challenges to intellectual property, competition from other products, difficulties inherent in the research and development process, adverse litigation or government action, and changes to laws and regulations applicable to our industry. Additional information about the economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors that may affect AbbVie's operations is set forth in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," of AbbVie's 2022 Annual Report on Form 10-K, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as updated by its subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. AbbVie undertakes no obligation, and specifically declines, to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law.

SOURCE AbbVie