AC Immune’s biggest stock move this year likely to come from tau mAb

The 19% stock bump of neurodegeneration play AC Immune S.A. (NASDAQ:ACIU) on Thursday may have reflected excitement about the target of the company’s anti-tau vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease more than any new information about the vaccine’s performance.

Early in the trading day, AC Immune was up more than 80% after announcing it had started the next dose group in its Phase Ib/2a trial of vaccine ACI-35, which is designed to induce immunity to a phosphorylated form of tau thought to be pathogenic in Alzheimer’s. The company’s press release included no data but noted the next dose was initiated based on “encouraging interim safety, tolerability and immunogenicity” findings from the lowest dose group...