Cortexyme Inc.

• Cortexyme Inc.
• NA

CRTX

We are a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering a novel disease-modifying therapeutic approach to treat what we believe to be a key underlying cause of Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases. Our approach is based on the seminal discovery of the presence of Porphyromonas gingivalis, or P. gingivalis, and its secreted toxic virulence factor proteases, called gingipains, in the brains of greater than 90% of more than 100 Alzheimer’s patients observed across multiple studies to date. Additionally, we have observed that P. gingivalis infection causes Alzheimer’s pathology in animal models, and these effects have been successfully treated with a gingipain inhibitor in preclinical studies.

Our proprietary lead drug candidate, COR388, is an orally-administered, brain-penetrating small molecule gingipain inhibitor. COR388 was well-tolerated with no concerning safety signals in our Phase 1a and Phase 1b clinical trials conducted to date, which enrolled a total of 67 subjects, including nine patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. We plan to initiate a global Phase 2/3 clinical trial of COR388, called the GAIN trial, in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s patients in the second quarter of 2019 and expect top-line results by the end of 2021.

COR388 is the first and only selective inhibitor of gingipain activity being investigated in clinical trials for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. COR388 is designed to target an upstream driver of multiple Alzheimer’s pathological pathways, including amyloid beta production, inflammation and neurodegeneration, in contrast to mechanisms of action targeting downstream effects, such as amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which have been largely unsuccessful in clinical trials to date. Accordingly, we believe COR388 could represent a disease-modifying therapy for the chronic treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Our Phase 1a and Phase 1b clinical trials enrolled a total of 67 subjects, including nine patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. In these placebo-controlled trials, COR388 was well-tolerated with no concerning safety signals. In the Alzheimer’s patients treated with COR388 for 28 days, we found changes in a number of pharmacodynamic biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease, including RANTES, an inflammatory marker, and Apolipoprotein protein E, or ApoE, a target for gingipains. For example, fragments of ApoE in the CSF were reduced compared to placebo, and blood levels of RANTES were significantly reduced. In addition, data from the Alzheimer’s patients treated with COR388 in our Phase 1b clinical trial showed improvements across several exploratory cognitive tests commonly used with Alzheimer’s patients and in Alzheimer’s trials.

These improvements in cognitive tests should be interpreted with caution because they were not all statistically significant. We identified bacterial DNA from P. gingivalis in the cerebral spinal fluid, or CSF, of all nine Alzheimer’s patients, and this finding is supported by additional data from larger studies conducted by our team both independently and in collaboration with academic institutions. Moreover, we observed that COR388 successfully penetrated the blood-brain barrier. In addition, in our preclinical studies, we observed that COR388 reduced bacterial load in the brain, reduced amyloid beta levels, protected neurons and reduced markers of neuroinflammation. We plan to enroll approximately 570 mild to moderate Alzheimer’s patients in our Phase 2/3 GAIN trial, or GingipAIN Inhibitor for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease Trial, to evaluate safety and efficacy after one year of treatment as measured on key endpoints that have previously supported regulatory approval of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, including the Alzheimer’s disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale 11, or ADAS-Cog11. We expect to report top-line data from this trial by the end of 2021. 

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