On Tuesday, Acumen Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ABOS) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
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Summary
Acumen Pharmaceuticals is advancing its Phase 2 Altitude AD trial for Alzheimer’s, with top-line results expected late this year. The trial focuses on targeting synaptotoxic abeta oligomers.
The company ended Q1 2026 with $128.4 million in cash, supporting operations into early 2027, boosted by a private placement raising $35.75 million.
R&D expenses were $16.5 million for the quarter, with a net loss of $20.7 million. The company remains focused on its EBD program, expecting an IND filing in mid-2027.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Acumen Pharmaceuticals First Quarter 2026 Conference Call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question. Please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Alex Braun, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Alex Braun (Head of Investor Relations)
Thanks Dede. Good morning and welcome to the Acumen Pharmaceuticals Conference Call to discuss our business update and financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. With me today are Dan O’Connell, our Chief Executive Officer, and Matt Dzuga, our CFO and Chief Business Officer. They will have brief prepared remarks and then we’ll open the call for questions. Joining for the Q and A session, we also have Dr. Jim Daugherty, our president and Chief Development Officer, and Dr. Eric Siemers, our Chief Medical Officer. Before we begin, we encourage listeners to go to the Investors section of the Acumen website to find our press release issued this morning that we’ll discuss today. Please note that during today’s conference call we may make forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements concerning our financial outlook and expected business plans. Please see slide 2 of our corporate presentation, our press release issued this morning, and our most recent annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC for important risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise the information provided on this call or in the accompanying presentation as a result of new information or future results. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Dan.
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Great. Thanks Alex. Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us today. I ended last quarter’s call by emphasizing the progress we’ve achieved with Sibernotug and our next generation blood brain barrier EBD candidates and highlighted the important work and upcoming milestones that lay ahead. That message has not changed. In the first quarter. We continued to advance Sibernotug through our Phase two altitude AD trial, building on the clinical momentum established over the past year. The study remains a critical proving ground for our central scientific thesis that selectively targeting synaptotoxic Abeta oligomers rather than amyloid plaques may constitute a more effective and or safer path forward in Alzheimer’s execution has stayed on track. Participants have been transitioning smoothly into the 12 month open label extension study and the conversion rate remains high. We see this disciplined progress is bringing us closer to a potentially differentiated treatment option for people living with Alzheimer’s. We expect our top line results for Altitude AD late this year. As we’ve described, ALTITUDE is designed as a well powered study to detect statistically significant difference after 18 months on our primary clinical efficacy endpoint, the amount of slowing as measured by the CDRs. We expect to also report on key secondary endpoints in the top line results such as the Clinical Dementia Rating Score, Sum of Boxes, certain safety measures such as adverse event rates including ARIA rates and key fluid and imaging biomarkers. The study is designed to evaluate safety and efficacy of two dose levels, 35 and 50 milligrams per kilogram compared to placebo. Both of the active doses are within the range of exposures shown to have exhibited pharmacodynamic target engagement in our Intercept AD Phase 1 trial. Our enhanced brain delivery EBD Program is also advancing nicely. We are conducting additional preclinical work to fully establish candid profiles and are very pleased with the output. We intend to submit a notice to exercise our option to license two compounds developed as part of our collaboration with JCR Pharma in the second quarter of 2026, so this development is imminent. We expect to discuss those candidate profiles in greater detail at a future medical meeting and continue to anticipate an IND filing in mid 27. We view EBD as a way to enhance our antibodies, enabling the potential to develop treatments with increased penetration and distribution in the brain while maintaining a favorable safety profile and and allowing for patient friendly subcutaneous dosing. We recognize there is competition in this space, however none with an Abeta ligament targeted therapeutic cargo. This is where we see the potential to push the therapeutic index even further, attaining efficacy by engaging the soluble toxic species of A Beta throughout the brain. Also, jcr, our collaborator on our EBD Program, has clinically validated transferrin targeting blood brain barrier receptor mediated transcytosis technology. JCR has an approved therapy in Japan which incorporates their technology and has exhibited little to no anemia. This anemia safety profile offers us further potential for differentiation with our carrier plus cargo EBD product strategy. Taken altogether, our EBD Program adds optionality to our pipeline as an additional oligomer targeted therapeutic strategy. While not currently contemplated in our immediate clinical development plans, an anti abate oligomer EBD therapeutic could also potentially be studied in pre clinical Alzheimer’s, a population earlier in disease course that could benefit greatly from a next generation Oligomer directed approach. The progress we’ve made with Sibernotug and our next generation EVD candidates reflect the strength of our science and and ability to execute and sets a solid foundation for an exciting remainder of the year. I look forward to updating you on imminent candidate selections in our EVD program and on our altitude AD phase two results in late 26 and with that I’ll turn the call over to Matt.
Matt Dzuga (CFO and Chief Business Officer)
Thank you Dan. As a reminder, our first quarter 2026 financial results are available in the press release we issued this morning and in our 10Q we will file later today. We ended 2025 with. Excuse me. We ended March 31st with $128.4 million in cash and marketable securities on the balance sheet which is expected to support our current clinical and operational activities into early 2027. This increase over the prior quarter is due to the private placement we completed in support of our EBD program that grossed $35.75 million in which we announced year, R&D expenses were $16.5 million in the first quarter. The decrease over the prior year was primarily due to a reduction in manufacturing and material costs as well as a reduction in CRO costs associated with our Altitude AD clinical trial which completed enrollment in March 2025. G&A expenses were $4.7 million in the first quarter. The decrease primarily due to reductions in legal fees as well as in accounting, consulting and insurance expenses. This led to a loss from operations of $21.1 million and a net loss of $20.7 million in the first quarter. We are confident in our scientific innovation and strong track record of execution as we work toward our phase two altitude AD readout later this year and advance our EBD program. We remain dedicated to building value with our portfolio of Abeta oligomer targeted antibodies for Alzheimer’s patients, caregivers and stakeholders. And with that we can open the call for Q and A operator.
OPERATOR
Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q and A roster. And our first question comes from Pete Stavopoulos of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.
Pete Stavopoulos (Equity Analyst)
Good morning Dan and team. Congratulations on continued execution of altitude. A question sort of about altitude and you know, altitude is looking at Alzheimer’s disease, you know, similar to the approved amyloid beta antibodies. However, there are ongoing studies for preclinical Alzheimer’s with a phase three readout starting in 2027. You know, assuming that altitude is positive and you move forward with Sibernotug, could you just give us your current thoughts on which populations or patient types you would target in phase three studies? You know, what would trigger you to expand to preclinical Alzheimer’s?
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks. Pete and I can address that real quickly. In terms of our focus, we remain focused on the early AD population, such as we’ve enrolled in altitude AD and see that as the path forward for Sibernotug in a future registration study. I think our interest in the preclinical population remains quite high and as I mentioned, potentially part of the future opportunities ahead, principally for an EBD candidate. So that’s not an immediate part of our plans, but certainly I think the science and mechanism of neutralizing toxic oligomers in the early course of the pathogenesis of disease is something that is promising on the horizon.
Pete Stavopoulos (Equity Analyst)
All right, thank you. And another question, please. On the EBD program, you know, you do have different versions of 193 and 234. They have different PK profiles, at least what you’ve shown to date. What are sort of the key properties in preclinical data that will drive you or drive the decision on candidate selection? And, you know, with an IND targeted, I believe, mid-2027. You know, could you just walk us through how you’re thinking about development plans and trial designs?
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Sure. That’s. That’s a lot, Pete. So I think, as you know, we’ve explored a lot of diversity in the EBD program, both from a carry and cargo perspective. And we like sort of the having the ability to evaluate a series of candidates. We were down to a short list. And as I mentioned, we anticipate. Anticipate exercising our option for two candidates in the second quarter and remain confident that we will be filing an ind mid-2027. I don’t know that we can go into the details of specific PK properties, but as we have characterized, I mean, the advantages of EVD really have to do with broad brain distribution, potentially a wider safety margin, and the subcutaneous dosing convenience. So those are elements of what we are using as part of the filter for prioritizing candidates in that program. Jim Daugherty, who’s on the call. I don’t know, Jim, if you want to add some additional color to comment on Pete’s question.
Jim Daugherty
Yeah, no, I think that sounded great, Dan. I guess, Pete, the only other thing I would add, you asked about clinical program. I mean, it’s early days, so we’re still thinking about what the early phase clinical program is going to look like. But I think we have a huge benefit in having conducted the Intercept study with Sibernotug. And it really gave us quite a lot of data. Not only the safety and tolerability and PK data you typically get in the phase one study, but since we were looking at Alzheimer’s patients in the MAD phase, we were able to collect data on PET imaging for abeta, for biochemical biomarkers, for a number of different things. And that’s really helped us with the Sibernotug program. And so we’re active discussing how to incorporate that kind of thinking into the early clinical studies for the BD program. So more to come, but we’re modeling what we’ve done on the suburban TUG program as a way to go forward.
Pete Stavopoulos (Equity Analyst)
All right, thank you very much for taking my questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And our next question comes from Jeff Meacham of Citi. Your line is open.
Mary Kate Davis
Good morning. This is Mary Kate Davis on for Jeff. Thanks for taking our questions. Just was wondering, could you please walk us through the early physician interest and feedback of Sibernotug, especially given the unmet need and early Alzheimer’s and mechanism of the treatment. And then as a follow up, could you just walk us through the ongoing regulatory interactions and anticipated discussions for the late stage development of the program? Thank you.
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Mary Kate. And actually, Jim, why don’t you take that, Jim and Eric, I think on the feedback we’ve received, we’ve done a lot of work at meetings and visited with a number of KOLs and other clinicians that have provided a broad set of feedback on the Sibernotug program in particular.
Jim Daugherty
Yeah, happy to do that, Mary Kate. And as Dan says, we’ve spoken to quite a number of KOLs about the Sibernotug program. And you know, I think there’s a lot of interest, obviously. I mean, we’re testing a hypothesis that is slightly different than what’s been tested so far with the approved therapeutics. And I think we can talk about both what those therapies have been able to do in treating patients and where there’s opportunity. And we do think that the suburban TUG approach offers a differentiated opportunity from what’s been done to date. And I think that’s generally understood by KOL. So I think everyone’s very much looking forward to seeing the data as we release the results for the altitude trial in late 20, 26. But I think at this point there’s a level of anticipation to see that potential for a differentiated response.
Eric Siemers
Yeah. And I might just add we have spent a lot of time thinking about the differentiation of Sibernotug and I think to some, well, obviously we don’t have the data right now. We’re in a blinded trial. But when we get the data, one of the things that we’ll look at, number one would be efficacy because again, we target oligomers, which is different than the two approved drugs. And then the second thing is we’ll look to see if we can differentiate on safety because our antibody is an IgG2. The two approved antibodies are IgG1s. IgG1s have more effector function, the potential for more aria. And so we’re going to look at the safety data very carefully when those become available.
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah. And to your question around regulatory interactions, the altitude study, of course, is running in multiple countries, across multiple jurisdictions. So we’re obviously speaking to regulatory agencies in the US and Canada and in Europe as part of all that, and then thinking strategically about the program or of course engaging with regulators about the overall progress of both of our programs, both the Sibernotug program as well as our EBD programs. And so that’s something we’ll continue to do. Obviously it’s quite important to stay in contact and to keep them apprised of progress. And so that’s just a fundamental thing that we’re always doing.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And our next question comes from Paul Matthias of Stifel. Your line is open.
Emily
Hi, this is Emily on for Paul. We wanted to say congrats on the quarter and just two quick questions from us, you know, as it relates to the upcoming phase two readout, you know, what do you think, you know, would be a clear win that would, you know, prove out Sibernotug to be a unique alternative to Donanemab and Lecanemab. And you know, do you see kind of different scenarios with the different doses? And then as a follow up to that, you know, assuming success in phase two, would you be able to incorporate a subcutaneous arm in a phase three program? And maybe any color on the, on the subcutaneous timelines would be helpful too. Thanks so much.
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Emily. So I think in terms of a clear win in altitude AD would be an efficacy signal at least at 30% of slowing, which is sort of the maximal or the upper end of the boundary, I think, for the current approved agents. So we are hopeful and anticipating that by targeting toxic species in a directed fashion, selected fashion, that it will unlock greater efficacy with the safety profile. I think there’s now real world evidence to sort of suggest what the overall rates of aria. And of course those rates of ARIA differ by genotype and so those are some of the other elements of what we’ll be looking to establish in terms of aria. So I think it will be the totality of the altitude data and really this sort of the risk benefit profile of Subrnotag with a combination of efficacy and or safety is positioned as the primary means of differentiation relative to the current approved agents. And in terms of Sub Q, I think we’ve previously guided that we will be looking at the phase two data, particularly in respect to the two active doses that are being investigated in altitude, to inform precisely where and how we would advance the ongoing work in Sub Q as part of the Phase three program.
Eric Siemers
And I might add, Emily, I think you asked an interesting question as well around doses. As you know, there are two different doses included in the altitude study and those doses were chosen to sort of bracket the range of oligomer clearance as measured by our target engagement assay in phase one. So we think we’ve got an interesting range of doses chosen and I’ll be very curious to see how that impacts the results both from a point of view of efficacy and safety. As Dan says, that’s an interesting feature on the altitude study, is that we’ve got both of those doses to investigate. Yeah, and just one other point about the aria. I think one of the concepts that’s across the field now that’s being better appreciated is, is that it’s really symptomatic ARIA that you’re really concerned about. And even if the symptomatic aria, it’s serious adverse events that you really worry about, so those aren’t nearly as common, but obviously they have a bigger impact. And so that’s one of the things that we’ll be benchmarking pretty carefully when we do get our data.
Emily
Great. Thanks guys so much.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And our next question comes from Jason Szymanski of Bank of America. Your line is open.
Jason Szymanski (Equity Analyst)
Good morning. Congrats on the great progress and thanks so much for taking our question. I wanted to ask a question maybe from a different perspective here, but over the last several weeks we’ve seen both the Cochrane report questioning the value of the anti-amyloid class and I guess a few days ago there was an article that detailed that use of the current commercially available anti-amyloid antibodies has been slower than expected. So as we kind of take a step back and think about both the overall unmet need and sort of the overall sort of view of the class itself. What do you think is necessary from Altitude and any sort of phase three you do to really demonstrate that there’s a level of differentiation here as well as overall efficacy to the point that it sort of turns back some of the skepticism. Thanks.
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks Jason. I think in terms of the Cochrane report, I think there’s been a good bit of follow up in terms of the methodology there and I think there’s a real question about kind of the merits of the approach from a methodology standpoint. I do think that and I’m familiar with the STAT article as well and I think which speaks to sort of two things, the unmet need and the demand for better options and the fact that there is the clinical infrastructure is now has been established and continues to adopt and progress make available these first couple agents and build out essentially the marketplace. I think what the market is looking for is a more clear value proposition in terms of their risk benefit profile. And that’s really where reading out Altitude and validating the oligomer hypothesis. I think acumen and Sibernotug stand at a really attractive position from a timing perspective to sort of re energize the space and position next generation treatment options. I think the field has progressed over a number of years to develop better insights into clinical trial design, which patients to treat underlying aspects of the pathophysiology of the disease. And so we view subernitog as sort of that next position, advancing the field forward on the basis of positive data.
Eric Siemers
And I’d like to say I was recently at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Chicago and these are practicing neurologists for the most part. There was a great deal of interest and enthusiasm for information concerning the to approve drugs Lecanemab and Donanemab. So even though there have been these relatively negative analyses and again as Dan mentioned, the Cochrane report was pretty flawed and a lot of people’s opinions in terms of how they did the analysis. I think if you actually talk to neurologists, they understand that the infrastructure has been rate limiting but that infrastructure is going to continue to improve. And so there was a lot of interest from neurologists at the AAM meeting.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And our next question comes from Tom Schrader of btig. Your line is open.
Ginny Kim
Good morning, this is Ginny Kim on for TomTrader. Thank you for taking our question. As Altitude AD approaches the late 2026 top line readout. Could you give us some additional color on the blinded operational metrics you’re tracking? Things like protocol deviation rates, site level dropout patterns, or any shifts in enrolled patient population profile relative to your original assumptions. More broadly, what distinguishes the quality of this data set relative to prior and prior trials. Thank you.
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Jimmy. Jim, do you want to lead out on that and Eric, provide some color?
Jim Daugherty
Yeah, Ginny, I’ll give you a first pass and then ask Eric to weigh in. I think probably the best thing to say is that we at this point have been very pleased with the progress of the altitude study. Any of these Studies is a 542-subject study. There’s a lot of data and a lot of information flowing in the study. But we’ve been relatively pleased with the conduct of the study. It’s a great team that is working extremely hard across multiple geographies to deliver the data. And I think to date we have been tracking to the assumptions that we built into our study design. So we have confidence in our study design as well. And I’ll turn over to Eric to give you any specific commentary.
Eric Siemers
Yeah, so thanks for the question. The study is progressing quite well, I think. As you know, we completed enrollment in a very short period of time. In 10 months. One of the things that we did in our study, which it’s being done in other studies, but it’s quite innovative, I think, was to use this Plasma PTAL217 test as part of the screening procedure. In other words, when we did our phase one study, to get into the study, you had to have a positive PET scan. And it turned out that about 60% of the time the PET scans were negative. When we added this blood test, simple blood test, as a screening step, before you got to PET scans, the rate of negative PET scans dropped from, again, around 60% to under 20%. So it made the screening process much better. We heard feedback from the sites that they really liked that approach. I think that’s something that could be used in clinical practice. And actually, at the American Academy of Neurology meeting, there was a lot of discussion about how you would use these plasma biomarkers as part of your screening process for patients. So we were really very pleased how that worked out in our trial, and we’re looking forward to seeing that utilized in clinical practice.
Ginny Kim
Thank you for the color.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And our next question comes from Dev Prasad of Lucid Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Dev Prasad
Hi. Congrats on the progress and thank you for Taking our question, just following up on the previous question regarding phase two doses. How much separation between 35 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg do you expect and what would you need to see to select a Phase 3 dose? Also on EBD Program, can you provide More detail on 14 to 40x higher brain exposure that you observed in the primates? What differentiated those exposures such as dose, route, brain distribution, et cetera? Thank you.
Dan O’Connell (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Deb. Jim, I’m going to direct those, Put those right to you.
Jim Daugherty
Yeah, Deb, so happy to take those questions. When we think about dosing for the altitude study, first the doses are 35 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg. And I was mentioning earlier, those doses were sort of chosen with the idea in mind that that is what looks to be a key part of the dynamic range and exposure of soluble oligomers, which of course is our key primary target. And I think the opportunity to see a differential effects of the two doses in a couple of different ways, I mean, we’ll have to wait and see what the data actually show. But one possibility is differences in efficacy. You might expect to see dose related differences in efficacy, although I think part of what we’re testing there is what the role of the siboid oligomers is and how that’s different from what you’ve seen to date with more plaque targeting antibodies. So in some ways the lower dose may give more of an oligomer specific signal, although we do expect some contribution from other species of a beta even at that dose. And then certainly as you go to a higher dose, you would expect some additional effects on larger species, as we’ve seen in the intercept study in phase one. And I think also one might expect that there could be some differences in tolerability. Right? I mean, that would be again, consistent with the phase one data. So, very excited to see the study at the end of the year and we’ll be looking at all these things for differential effects at multiple doses. And then I think your other question around the EBD programs. So of course what we’re trying to achieve is both an improvement in brain penetration, but also the brain distribution of our oligomer targeting antibodies by coupling with the carrier technology from jcr. What we’ve done is we’ve investigated multiple candidates is we’ve been able to vary both sides of that equation. So looking at the changes to the carrier choices from JCR Pharmaceuticals as well as modifications on the cargo side, and really the quick way to summarize it is what you’re seeing is a range of substantial improvements in brain exposure, and that’s in both rodent studies using humanized transferrin receptor and then also in primate studies. And so we’re looking at multiple brain regions in the primate study. And so we’re seeing really substantial improvements. And you quoted the range between 15 fold and 40 fold improvements in exposure. And so we’re seeing both that improved brain penetration as well as distribution. And we really think it’s both properties that are part of what make this technology so exciting for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and specifically for soluble oligomer approach. So that’s what I can say. To date, we are keeping a close eye on which are the best candidates to give us the broadest distribution in multiple brain regions.
Dev Prasad
Great. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session and also today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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