Biogen and Eisai Say Alzheimer's Drug a Success, Reversing Earlier Result

Biogen and Eisai have backtracked earlier study findings indicating that the top dose of an experimental Alzheimer's drug, BAN2401, was ineffective, and now say it has slowed progression over 18 months in people with milder, early stages of the disease, according to Forbes . The first clinical trial used Bayesian statistics as well as adaptive design, so that if a dose appeared ineffective, participants would be given another dose that was more likely to work. The 18-month analysis showed participants exhibited less decline on the very highest dose than on placebo, with the result statistically significant at six, 12, and 18 months. "Given the state of the field we have to be cautiously optimistic about a finding like this," says Ron Petersen with the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Amyloid-destroying drugs from Pfizer, Roche, and Eli Lilly have not outperformed placebos for people with Alzheimer's. Like BAN2401, these were antibody drugs designed to emulate molecules the immune system uses to attack disease. "We have two drugs either of which could be the very first disease-modifying therapy for Alzheimer's," says Biogen Chief Medical Officer Al Sandrock. "To see it once is one thing, but to see it again with a very different antibody is like repeating the experiment twice and seeing the same result."