Joined: 12/6/2011
Posts: 3326
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From Alzheimer's Daily News:
(Source: New York Times) - The most closely watched experimental treatment for Alzheimer's disease proved ineffective in its first large clinical trial.
Pfizer announced late Monday that the drug, bapineuzumab, did not improve either cognition or daily functioning of patients compared to a placebo in the Phase 3 trial.
The drug is a monoclonal antibody designed to bind to beta-amyloid, a protein that has toxic effects in the brain and is believed by many scientists to be a cause of Alzheimer's.
Eli Lilly & Company is also developing an antibody against beta amyloid, which it calls solanezumab. Clinical trial results are expected in the coming weeks.
Bapineuzumab is the latest of several drugs aimed at clearing beta amyloid or preventing its formation that have failed to work in clinical trials. The failures have raised questions about whether beta amyloid really is the culprit behind Alzheimer's disease.
Some experts say the drugs are being tried too late in the course of the disease and would be best used to prevent the formation of amyloid plaque rather than to try to destroy it after it has formed.
Go to full story: http://www.nytimes.com
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Joined: 12/18/2011
Posts: 3097
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More Pfizer bad news:
Reuters) - Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson scrapped further studies of one of the most anticipated experimental drugs for Alzheimer's disease after it failed to help patients with the memory-robbing condition in a second high-profile clinical trial.
The companies said they would discontinue all other studies of the drug bapineuzumab in its intravenous (IV) form, including two more late stage trials and follow-up extension studies, in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's.
The result marked the second such late-stage failure announced in recent weeks and was especially disappointing as bapineuzumab had been given a better chance of success in the patients studied in the second trial.
Pfizer on July 23 announced the failure in the first of four high-stakes trials, in patients with the ApoE4 gene variation. That trial was considered more of a long-shot based on poor results in earlier trials, but hopes were high that the data would prove more encouraging in ApoE4 non-carriers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/07/us-pfizer-alzheimers-idUSBRE8751F120120807
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