AlphaCore Pharma, an Ann Arbor-based biotech company working on a drug to treat atherosclerosis, announced this week that it has been acquired by MedImmune, the biologics division of the Delaware-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Sparking AstraZeneca’s interest is AlphaCore’s ACP-501, a recombinant human lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) enzyme, which is thought to play a major role in removing cholestrol from the body and the management of HDL cholestrol levels. Positive results were reported from a Phase 1 clinical trial of ACP-501 in 2012. That data gathered during the Phase 1 trial will be used to further ACP-501’s development.
AlphaCore’s president, William Brinkerhoff, was previously the COO of Cerenis Therapeutics, a biotech company based in Ann Arbor and Toulouse, France. Before that, Brinkerhoff was the vice president of business development at Esperion, another Ann Arbor biotech company with a major exit; it was sold to Pfizer for $1.4 billion in 2004.
It’s not known yet whether the seven-member AlphaCore team will remain in Ann Arbor after the acquisition.
