Focusing on genetically defined population still couldn't save Eli Lilly, Roche's anti-amyloid Alzheimer's drugs
Neither Eli Lilly or Roche got any closer to proving their anti-amyloid therapies have a shred of value in the fight against Alzheimer’s as they disclosed topline results from a Phase II/III study involving patients with a rare inherited form of the disease.
Compared to the drugmakers’ previous failed trials, DIAN-TU was a small, customized effort that ran long. Investigators at Washington University in St Louis followed 194 participants — out of 490 randomized to receive Lilly’s solanezumab, Roche’s gantenerumab or placebo — for an average of 5 years and in some cases up to 7 years. They even tailor-made a composite endpoint comprising several cognitive assessments to suit this group of people with genetic mutations known to cause early onset Alzheimer’s, some of whom may not have had symptoms when they enrolled in the trial.
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