Why do we keep investing in anti-amyloid therapies for Alzheimer’s disease?
One can not help but think of Queen’s 1980 hit Another One Bites the Dust when reading some of the latest headlines about the failures of anti-amyloid therapies for Alzheimer’s disease. Just this week, Biogen reported that their block-buster anti-amyloid immunotherapy, aducanumab failed its major phase 3 trials, essentially tanking its market cap and inducing irritable bowel syndrome in its investors.
The raw data are not out yet, but will be published at the next scientific meeting. The goal of the two multicenter studies (ENGAGE and EMERGE) was to determine if monthly doses of aducanumab could slow cognitive decline in patients with early stage Alzheimer’s disease. The idea behind passive immunotherapy is to remove amyloid-beta from the brain. How these antibodies accomplish this is still under investigation. Interestingly, phase 1 studies of aducanumab showed impressive reduction of brain amyloid-beta using positron emission tomography — a growing technology for looking at biomolecules in live tissues. Additionally, these studies, although underpowered, suggested a possible slowing of cognitive decline.
Predictably, once the antibody was used in a larger cohort, this therapeutic effect disappeared. A quote from Biogen’s CEO Michel Vounatsos, sums up the failure nicely (emphasis on…
