He Latest Alzheimer’S Drug Has Failed At Clinical Trial Stage
Merck has announced that its trial of the BACE inhibitor verubecestat is at an end after an independent study predicted that it had virtually no hope of success in the treatment of people with mild to moderate cases of Alzheimer’s. A separate study involving prodromal patients, which should last for another two years, will continue.
The abandoned drug was one of the company’s top drugs in late-stage testing, and news of its failure led to Merck’s shares dropping by 2.45 per cent.
What are BACE inhibitors?
BACE drugs attempt to interfere with the creation of amyloid beta, a toxic protein often found within Alzheimer’s patients’ brains. Merck’s drug was the world’s most advanced BACE therapy of its type in the pipeline, although there are others currently undergoing testing.
The president of Merck Research Laboratories, Dr Roger M Perlmutter, said it was disappointing that there was no benefit observed by the study; however, he added that work will continue to study the use of verubecestat in instances of less-advanced disease.
More Alzheimer’s failures
Eli Lilly recently made the decision to stop its prodromal phase III testing for solanezumab, as there was no potential for success after it was found to have no effects when compared with a placebo.
No significant new Alzheimer’s drugs have been approved over the last 14 years, despite huge clinical trials involving many leading experts and clinical trial assistants. Despite the involvement of hugely-qualified individuals supplied by companies such as http://www.gandlscientific.com/clinical-trial-assistants/, no trial can …
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