AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly to Scrap Alzheimer's Drug Trials

AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly have announced a halt to their global trials of their anti-Alzheimer's drug lanabecestat following a panel's conclusion that the medication was likely to be ineffective, reports the Financial Times . They said an independent monitoring committee determined the primary targets were "not likely" to be met. This development marks a new setback for beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitors, following Johnson & Johnson's decision in May to discontinue a trial into another BACE inhibitor because of safety issues. Lanabecestat was granted Fast Track designation in 2016 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, permitting the AstraZeneca-Eli Lilly partnership to accelerate its research. "The complexity of Alzheimer's disease poses one of the most difficult medical challenges of our time, and we are deeply disappointed for the millions suffering from this devastating disease," said Lilly Research Labs President Daniel Skovronsky.