Alzheimer's Drug Results Called Encouraging, Despite Disappointment

An independent research consortium said this week that new information about the potential Alzheimer's drug solanezumab, being developed by Eli Lilly, is "encouraging." The Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) presented results from its analyses of the EXPEDITION study data at the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association. Lilly provided the data collected from the EXPEDITION studies to the ADCS.

On August 24, Lilly announced that its clinical trials in more than 2,000 people showed the drug was unable to halt the disease's progress on measures of cognition and functionality. Lilly's announcement followed by less than a month the failure of a similar drug being developed by Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson. But Lilly did note evidence of "statistically significant slowing of cogntive decline in subjects with mild to moderate Alzheimer's who were taking the drug."

Rachelle Doody, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of neurology at Baylor College of Medicine and a member of the ADCS steering committee, said "Alzheimer's disease research has been extremely challenging. The data results from the solanezumab phase 3 trials...represent an important step for the medical, academic, and scientific communities in understanding brain amyloid as a target of Alzheimer's disease therapies."

To read more about the latest developments in Alzheimer's research, see Psychiatric News here and here. Also see Clinical Manual of Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias from American Psychiatric Publishing.

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