likely emboldened other Alzheimer’s developers to raise cash: Axovant Sciences, of Hamilton, Bermuda, pulled off a massive $315 million IPO in June (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AXON]]), and North Carolina-based vTv Therapeutics is now shooting for a $125 million offering.
The prize for any success in this field is enormous. More than 5 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s, and the numbers are only expected to grow (a new study presented at AAIC by researchers at the Lewin Group estimated that 28 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s between now and 2050). The only approved therapies are cognitive boosters meant to help people think more clearly, but even those drugs help only a fraction of patients for a short period of time.
With the 6 mg aducanumab results released today, Biogen maintains its enthusiasm for a Phase 3 trial, the true proving ground for experimental drugs, but also where many Alzheimer’s hopefuls have fallen in the past. The company says it has begun screening patients, and the Phase 3 trial should begin later this year.
Beyond Biogen, there’s plenty of other news from this week’s big Alzheimer’s meeting. Here are some highlights so far:
—Eli Lilly is teeing up new results from solanezumab, another plaque-clearing antibody. Solanezumab failed a Phase 3 trial in 2012 in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s, but Lilly has continued testing the drug in patients whose disease has not progressed as far. Today, Eli Lilly is offering a glimpse at the first results. The company says they suggest that early intervention, using a novel trial design, has a benefit, but as of this writing the company has not yet published data to back up its claims.
—The Wall Street Journal examined two companies—Neurophage Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, MA, and Treventis, of Philadelphia—aiming for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases by targeting protein folding errors, rather than just clearing out the plaques that misfolded proteins create. Both have yet to test their drugs in humans, though Neurophage, which Xconomy profiled in early 2014, is much closer to its first clinical test.
—CNN reported that researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a test to find indicators of Alzheimer’s in saliva. The test, while interesting—a tool for early detection could be critical in the fight against Alzheimer’s—hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal as of yet.
—Early detection of Alzheimer’s has become an important mantra for those trying to come up with a treatment, and CBS News and NBC News examined some of those efforts here.
—Researchers have found in a study that women developing Alzheimer’s tend to progress much faster than men, as NBC reports here.
—Though the cause of Alzheimer’s remains unknown, a few studies reported at AAIC tied potential Alzheimer’s risks to lack of sleep, and too much television.
Photo “My Mother’s Hands” courtesy of Ann Gordon via a Creative Commons license.
