Roche's study flop marks yet another Alzheimer's setback (updated)

AC Immune SA

16/06/2022 14:10

(Adds background, details, shares)
    By Natalie  Grover
    ZURICH/LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - Roche's experimental
Alzheimer's drug crenezumab failed to meaningfully slow or
prevent cognitive decline in people at risk of a rare, inherited
form of the disease, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.
    The failure marks another blow to the hypothesis that
targeting toxic protein plaque known as beta amyloid in the
brain is a viable approach to arresting the progression of
Alzheimer's disease. 
    Roche had hoped to prove crenezumab, which is designed to
block beta amyloid, could prevent the memory-robbing disease if
given before symptoms emerged. 
    The lengthy study involved 252 people from an extended
family in Columbia diagnosed with autosomal dominant Alzheimer's
disease (ADAD) caused by a specific gene mutation. They were
enrolled before they showed any signs.
    Participants were randomised to receive regular infusions of
crenezumab or placebo over five to eight years. On Thursday,
Roche said that although small numerical differences favoured
crenezumab, the effects were not statistically significant. 
    Roche's shares slipped more than 1% in afternoon trading.   
    Crenezumab was discovered by fellow Swiss drug developer AC
Immune  ACIU.O , but Roche was in charge of its development via
a licence agreement. The drug previously failed a pair of phase
III studies evaluating its use in the early stages of
Alzheimer's.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1ZU0YQ 
    The field targeting the fatal brain disease - which affects
an estimated 55 million globally - is littered with high profile
failures. Drugs designed to target Alzheimer's have nearly
always stumbled in trials.
    Adoption of the first new Alzheimer's treatment in nearly 20
years, made by rival U.S. drugmaker Biogen Inc  BIIB.O ,
spectacularly underwhelmed after the U.S. health regulator gave
the green light to the treatment without clear evidence of
patient benefit, driven in part by the lack of options for the
most common form of dementia. 
    Roche, which recently suffered a key cancer drug setback,
has its own keenly-watched Alzheimer's prospect. Late-stage data
on the drug, gantenerumab, is expected later this year. 
    But the company has sought to temper expectations around
high-risk, high-reward product. 
    "Everyone knows Alzheimer's research is a very risky type of
research," Chairman Christoph Franz told Reuters last month.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2X41HQ
    

 (Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz in Zurich and Natalie Grover in
London; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Edmund Blair)
 ((silke.koltrowitz@thomsonreuters.com; +41 41 528 3638;))