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Alzheimer's: New drug fails in study

2022-11-14T15:52:05.107Z


The drug manufacturer Roche has to lament a research setback. The experimental drug gantenerumab was not convincing in two clinical studies with dementia sufferers.


Enlarge image

Before the first symptoms appear, so-called plaques form in the brains of people affected by Alzheimer's (symbol image)

Photo: Andrew Brookes/Image Source/Getty Images

After another research setback with a novel Alzheimer's drug from the Swiss Roche Group, the treatment options for the most widespread form of dementia remain limited.

In two large-scale phase III clinical studies, the antibody gantenerumab was unable to slow down the cognitive and functional decline in patients in the early stages of the disease, the pharmaceutical company from Basel announced on Monday.

The drug thus missed the main goals in the two eagerly awaited studies »Graduate I and II«.

According to Roche, gantenerumab ensured that performance in areas such as memory, orientation skills and problem-solving ability decreased more slowly.

However, these results were not statistically significant.

In addition, the breakdown of beta-amyloid, the protein that builds up in plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, was less than expected.

Roche wants to present the study results at the Alzheimer's Congress CTAD on November 30 - and the group wants to continue developing Alzheimer's therapies and diagnostics.

The US biotechnology group Biogen and its Japanese partner Eisai still have the prospect of an effective new Alzheimer's therapy.

Their drug lecanemab had recently slowed down the cognitive and functional decline significantly in clinical tests with patients in the early stages of the disease - a rare success in Alzheimer's research, which can look back on a long series of failures.

This had also fueled hopes of success for the Roche drug.

Because gantenerumab follows the same treatment approach as lecanemab - the removal of deposits of the beta-amyloid protein from the brain of Alzheimer's patients.

Worldwide, 55 million people suffer from dementia, most of them probably from Alzheimer's according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In 2030, an estimated 78 million people will be affected by dementia.

Alzheimer's is difficult to diagnose, especially in the early stages of the disease.

jae/dpa/Reuters

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-11-14

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