The reprioritization effort will help AC Immune extend its cash runway through the third quarter of 2027.
AC Immune is letting go of 30% of its employees as the Swiss biotech tries to extend its cash runway past key clinical inflection points in the coming years.
Alongside the layoffs, announced Thursday, AC Immune will sharpen its pipeline focus and concentrate its investments into its “most important assets.” These include its three clinical-stage programs, two of which are in collaboration with Big Pharma partners. AC Immune will also move ahead with its “most promising” small-molecule assets targeting tau proteins and the NLRP3 inflammasome.
“The actions we are taking now extend our cash runway to the end of Q3 2027,” CEO Andrea Pfeifer said in a prepared statement on Thursday, highlighting that AC Immune is “approaching multiple potentially transformational milestones over the next two years.” Pfeifer did not specify what these milestones are.
The biotech had 172 employees at the end of 2024, meaning that about 52 people could be affected by Thursday’s headcount reduction.
AC Immune is focused on the development of precision therapies for neurodegenerative indications. According to its website, the company has three clinical-stage programs, each addressing the amyloid-beta, tau and alpha-synuclein pathways. AC Immune is working on several assets across these programs, in many cases in partnership with other pharma companies.
For instance, AC Immune is advancing the anti-amyloid-beta active immunotherapy ACI-24 in collaboration with Takeda to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The candidate works by inducing the production of antibodies against misfolded amyloid-beta, in turn leading to the clearance of plaques from the brain. ACI-24 is currently in Phase Ib/II development, with interim data expected in the first half of 2026, the company said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, AC Immune also has an Alzheimer’s partnership with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. The asset at the heart of this collaboration, ACI-35.030, is also an active immunotherapy that generates antibodies against tau
AC Immune is also working on a couple of assets on its own. Most mature of these is ACI-7104.056, likewise an immunotherapy that is designed to elicit antibodies against the pathological oligomeric alpha-synuclein protein, a known player in neurodegenerative diseases. The asset is currently in Phase II development for Parkinson’s disease, with data expected before the end of the year, the biotech noted on Thursday.
In the second quarter, AC Immune reported a net loss of 21.2 million Swiss Francs, ($26.3 million). As of June 30, 2025, the biotech’s cash balance sat at 127.1 million Swiss Francs, or almost $157.7 million. Before Thursday’s strategic initiatives, AC Immune’s cash runway was enough to tide it over into the first quarter of 2027.
