Gri­fol­s' Alzheimer’s vac­cine ap­pears safe, but ef­fi­ca­cy un­clear, in PhII study

An ex­per­i­men­tal Alzheimer’s vac­cine that stim­u­lates the im­mune sys­tem to re­move forms of amy­loid pro­teins that ac­cu­mu­late in blood ves­sels ap­peared safe in a study of pa­tients with mild cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment or mild Alzheimer’s dis­ease.

Peo­ple in the Phase II, 134 pa­tient study were as­sessed a year af­ter they re­ceived the first of 6 shots. When mea­sured on a com­mon test for cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment called the Mi­ni-Men­tal State Ex­am­i­na­tion (MMSE), their dis­ease slowed by a max­i­mum of 38% in peo­ple who got the vac­cines com­pared to place­bo. That re­sult was sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant. But a lat­er re­view at 18 months and 24 months, which showed an 18% slow­ing of dis­ease, was not.

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