Bottneuro AG closed the first tranche of a bridge round, bringing its total capital raise in 2022 to $4.3 million. This is being used to develop its noninvasive, domestic therapy for treating early moderate-stage Alzheimer’s patients.

Researchers from Yale University and affiliated organizations published data from a study that aimed to assess the mechanistic and pathophysiological importance of plaque-associated axonal spheroids (PAASs) in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

In 2021, Biogen Inc.’s Aduhelm (aducanumab) became the first amyloid-targeting therapy to win U.S. FDA approval in Alzheimer’s disease. After decades and dozens of failed phase III trials, the drug was granted accelerated approval in June 2021. In January 2022, however, the U.S. Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it would only cover use of Alzheimer’s MAbs targeting amyloid in NIH trials or trials it approved, thus appearing to call into question the rigor of FDA-approved trials.

2021 was the year Aduhelm (aducanumab, Biogen Inc.) was approved as the first amyloid-β-busting drug for Alzheimer’s disease. And in 2022, there was as much need for an effective AD drug as ever. Aduhelm’s commercial fate was sealed with the decision of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that the drug would only be reimbursed in clinical trials approved by the CMS or the NIH.