Cerveau Technology Inc. signed a license and supply agreement with AbbVie on Monday for its investigational PET imaging agent [F-18]MK-6240.

As part of the deal, [F-18]MK-6240 will be used as a biomarker in clinical trials that evaluate drugs in development for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

“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,” Rick Hiatt, CEO of Cerveau, said in a statement.
[F-18]MK-6240 is for assessing the status and progression of neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. NFTs are composed of aggregated tau protein and are biomarkers for certain neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s.

The pharmaceutical company Merck was the original developer of [F-18]MK-6240 and then signed a license agreement with Cerveau in January for global development and commercialization. Cerveau then inked a deal with Siemens’ PETNET Solutions a month later that granted the company the right to manufacture it.

The FDA cleared the Investigational New Drug application for the imaging agent in June, which permitted it to be tested in clinical studies. Plans were announced to begin a Phase III clinical trial in early 2018.

The company collaborated with Janssen Pharmaceuticals last week to make [F-18]MK-6240 a biomarker in the company’s neurodegenerative disease research studies. It will be used to diagnose and evaluate new treatments for these diseases in humans.

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