What would it Take to Get an Effective Alzheimer’s Drug?
Clinical trial failures kick off a search for new approaches
Beyond Amyloid
There is no evidence so far to prove that current Aβ-lowering trials (beginning at age 65 or above) will show any meaningful benefit for memory or other brain functions. There is unlikely to be anytime soon a medicine (analogous to statins for cardiovascular disease and insulin for diabetes) that is administered for decades from midlife to death as a means of preventing AD. In the cases of statins and insulin, the FDA and society as a whole have agreed that their risk–
benefit ratios are acceptable. Any new medication for AD that is worth the risk of ingestion for decades must be effective and must do no harm anywhere in the body. The Aβ-lowering drugs in the current pipeline fall well short of this goal. As yet, there is no reason to expose patients to risky and expensive drugs showing only incremental benefits that are not meaningful. This Plan A is beginning to look like a dead end at least in the protocols employed so far.”
Click here to read the article published July 17, 2017 about how clinical trial failures kick off a search for new approaches. |
