Roche HQ in Basel, Switzerland. (Image credit: Kyle LaHucik/Endpoints News)

As com­peti­tors near FDA goal­post, Roche spells out its re­peat Alzheimer's set­back

Be­fore Roche can turn all eyes on a new ver­sion of its more-than-once-failed Alzheimer’s drug gan­tenerum­ab, the Big Phar­ma had to flesh out da­ta on the No­vem­ber topline fail­ure at an an­nu­al con­fer­ence buzzi­er than in years past thanks to hot­ly watched ri­vals in the field: Ei­sai and Bio­gen’s lecanemab, and Eli Lil­ly’s do­nanemab.

There was less than a 10% dif­fer­ence be­tween Roche’s drug and place­bo at slow­ing cog­ni­tive de­cline across two Phase III tri­als, which com­bined en­rolled near­ly 2,000 Alzheimer’s pa­tients. In its pre­sen­ta­tion at the con­fer­ence Wednes­day, Roche said it saw less sweep­ing away of tox­ic pro­teins than it had an­tic­i­pat­ed. For years, re­searchers and in­vestors have put their re­sources be­hind the idea that more amy­loid re­moval would equate to re­duced cog­ni­tive de­cline.

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