Shares in Actinogen Medical Ltd (ASX: ACW) soared today after the company released news on the upcoming study of its drug designed to treat Alzheimer's disease.
At market close, the Actinogen share price was trading at 16 cents – 19.23% higher than its previous close.
Let's take a closer look at today's news from the biotech company.
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XanaMIA study
Today, Actinogen announced it has made deals with several companies to run the XanaMIA Part A dose-ranging study.
The dose-ranging study is the company's first step towards testing whether XanaMIA can treat cognitive ability in volunteers and patients with mild cognitive impairment, the first clinical stage of Alzheimer's disease.
The study will enrol 105 healthy volunteers aged 50 or older, starting next month. The volunteers will be given either 5 milligrams or 10 milligrams of XanaMIA to determine the minimum effective dose.
Actinogen also advised today that research organisation Avance Clinical will manage the XanaMIA study. Avance will charge Actinogen around $1.25 million for the service.
Additionally, Actinogen has employed Paratus Clinical to recruit the dose-ranging study's subjects, for which Actinogen will provide a budget of around $850,000.
Paratus will also provide the 4 Australian clinical-trial sites that will house the study.
Finally, Actinogen has made an agreement with CogState Limited (ASX: CGS) to use the neuroscience technology company's Neuropsychological Test Battery in the dose-ranging study.
CogState's Neuropsychological Test Battery is a platform that delivers highly sensitive cognition tests.
Actinogen will pay CogState around US$300,000 for access to the platform.
Today's news comes nearly 3 weeks after Actinogen announced the XanaMIA study received approval from the Bellberry Human Research Ethics Committee.
Following the XanaMIA Part A dose ranging study, Actinogen will begin its XanaMIA Part B study.
The Part B study will see people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease treated with XanaMIA. It will try and find if the drug can treat mild cognitive impairment.
Actinogen share price snapshot
The Actinogen share price has performed exceptionally well on the ASX this year.
Currently, the Actinogen share price is a whopping 675% higher than it was at the start of 2021.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $215 million, with approximately 1.6 billion shares outstanding.
