Cerveau inks licensing deal with AbbVie for tau imaging agent

Cerveau Technologies has inked a deal to license and supply AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) with its [F-18]MK-6240 investigational tau imaging agent, the company said today.

After the FDA cleared the investigational new drug application for Cerveau’s imaging agent in June, the company said it planned to work with pharmaceutical partners to evaluate the product’s use in positron emission tomography scans to assess neurofibrillary tangles in the brain.

NFTs composed of aggregated tau protein are characteristic of certain neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. Cerveau’s partnership with AbbVie is slated to focus on the use of [F-18]MK-6240 as a biomarker in clinical trials of drugs being developed for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

“At Cerveau we are focused on enhancing access to key technologies that we believe have the potential to advance human health” CEO Rick Hiatt said in prepared remarks. “We are excited by the opportunity to work with AbbVie with the goal of expanding the availability of this novel investigational imaging agent to the broader scientific community.”

Cerveau holds a global license for the imaging agent from Merck (NYSE:MRK).