Lilly forced to abandon Alzheimer’s drug after failed trial
pharmafile | November 24, 2016 | News story | Business Services, Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's disease, Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly announced that the results of its ‘Expedition 3’ trial for an experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug meant that they would now cease development of the drug. The drug was found to show no significant statistical difference in patients from those treated with placebo.
This is the second time that Lilly has failed at trial with solanezumab, as it had earlier failed a Phase 3 trial back in 2012. In this previous trial, containing 1,000 patients and lasting for 18 months, the drug had failed to show efficacy but, after analysis of the data, scientists believed that they had identified a possible improvement of those in the early stages of the disease.
This led to the current trial that tested whether the drug could slow decline in mental capacity of patients with mild symptoms and at the early stages of the disease. The trial was continued over a period of two years and involved 2,100 patients. The drug operates by attaching onto and isolating soluble forms of beta amyloid, the protein that is thought to become toxic when it forms into clumps or ‘plaques’.
“The results of the solanezumab EXPEDITION3 trial were not what we had hoped for and we are disappointed for the millions of people waiting for a potential disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s disease,” said John C. Lechleiter, chairman, president and CEO, Lilly. “We will evaluate the impact of these results on the development plans for solanezumab and our other Alzheimer’s pipeline assets.”
The type of treatment that is able to remove these plaques was thought to have one of the strongest chances of aiding patients with Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, the trial was not able to display results that displayed statistical significance. The results saw Lilly’s shares drop by 12% and also saw Biogen and Merck’s shares drop in unison. Both Biogen and MSD are developing Alzheimer’s disease treatments, which are going through Phase 3 clinical trial testing. It will be hoped that the results from these trials are more positive, with 5.4 million people in the US alone thought to be suffering from the disease.
Ben Hargreaves
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