AbbVie today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Cerevel Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CERE). With the completion of the acquisition, Cerevel is now part of AbbVie.
“AbbVie’s acquisition of Cerevel strengthens our foundation in neuroscience and positions us to deliver sustainable long-term performance into the next decade and beyond,” said Robert A. Michael, chief executive officer, AbbVie. “Our new Cerevel colleagues share our commitment to deliver meaningful change for patients living with neurological and psychiatric conditions. We are excited to welcome the talented Cerevel team to AbbVie.”
There are multiple programs in Cerevel’s pipeline across several neurological and psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease and mood disorders, where there continues to be significant unmet need for patients. Cerevel’s pipeline is highly complementary to AbbVie’s existing neuroscience portfolio and the completion of the acquisition is an important step forward to delivering new and better tolerated therapies.
Emraclidine, a potential best-in-class, next-generation antipsychotic, is a positive allosteric modulator (PAM) of the muscarinic M4 receptor that is being studied for the treatment of schizophrenia – a disease that affects approximately 24 million people worldwide.1 In a Phase 1b study, emraclidine has shown promising efficacy and safety and is currently completing two Phase 2 trials that were designed to be registration enabling.
Tavapadon, a first-in-class dopamine D1/D5 selective partial agonist for the management of Parkinson’s disease, is currently in Phase 3 studies and has potential for both monotherapy and adjunctive treatment. Tavapadon’s efficacy and safety-tolerability profile could enable its utility in early Parkinson’s disease, becoming a near-term complementary asset to AbbVie’s existing symptomatic therapies for advanced Parkinson’s disease. Recently, tavapadon met the primary endpoint in a pivotal Phase 3 study and data from additional Phase 3 trials of tavapadon are expected later this year.
CVL-354, currently in Phase 1, is a potential best-in-class kappa opioid receptor (KOR) antagonist that has the potential to provide significantly improved efficacy and tolerability compared to existing treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD). Darigabat, currently in Phase 2, is an alpha 2/3/5 selective GABAA receptor PAM for treatment-resistant epilepsy and panic disorder.
