A drug that might be in a position to help individuals slow down the Alzheimer’s disease will quickly be unveiled by researchers.
Advertisement
In other studies, Biogen Inc. announced some new data suggesting that its experimental Alzheimer’s drug slowed the progression of the disease while researchers said a now-halted clinical trial of a Roche Holding AG compound indicated the therapy reduced the volume of a substance in the brains of patients that is believed to contribute to the disease.
Both sets of results provide support for the “amyloid hypothesis”: the idea that amyloid deposits in the brain are a cause of Alzheimer’s, rather than an effect, and that removing them stops the disease. But that report included data from only three of four groups of patients taking different doses of its experimental drug for at least a year. And that steady gap, Lilly asserts, with the two groups declining on parallel tracks, may well illustrate the disease-modifying effect from the amyloid drug-a landmark event for a field that has seen repeated failures over the years. Results from EXPEDITION and EXPEDITION2 were pooled and only patients with mild dementia at the beginning of the study were included in this analysis. To assess whether the benefits of early treatment can be matched by later treatment (that is, whether delayed-start patients can “catch up” with early-start patients), a noninferiority test was conducted.
The data is due to be released at the Alzheimer’s Association worldwide conference in Washington. In 2012, the original 18-month studies of solanezumab, called Expedition and Expedition 2, each included about 1,000 patients with mild to moderate disease. The effects would have been barely discernible to patients or their families, scientists said, and it is no cure. If it does, then Eli Lilly could be positioned to file for solanezumab’s approval; however, such an approval could still be years away given that this other study isn’t expected to wrap up until 2016.
Around 850,000 people in the United Kingdom have a form of dementia.
Alzheimer’s represents a pharmaceutical gold mine for drug makers as there are no known treatments that combat the disease itself. That number is predicted to rise to over two million by 2051, more than the entire populations of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.
Researchers at Eli Lilly previously said: “Results from 28 weeks’ treatment suggest patients who received solanezumab had a cognitive benefit not recovered by patients who began Solanezumab later”, according to the Mirror. The data “is far from inspiring confidence” and makes the outlook for aducanumab “more speculative than ever”, Schimmer contended.
Advertisement
Dr Clare Walton, research manager for the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “After a decade of no new treatments and several failed trials, today’s news is really positive”. “The cognitive measures do not have a direct relationship to clinically apparent benefit”, he told reporters. “At Lilly’s current stock price, shares appear to factor in pipeline enthusiasm for two blockbuster candidates-solanezumab for Alzheimer’s and evacetrapib for cholesterol”.
