Drug slows Alzheimer’s in patients with mild disease

Source:Reuters Published: 2015-7-23 0:53:02

Patients with mild Alzheimer's disease who took Eli Lilly and Co's experimental drug solanezumab early in the course of their disease preserved more of their cognitive and functional ability, according to new Lilly data released Wednesday.

Lilly presented new follow-up data from two large trials Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in Washington.

Researchers and investors have been keen to see if the results would firm up solanezumab as a lead contender to be the first treatment to effectively slow progression of the memory-robbing disease.

In 2012, the original 18-month studies of solanezumab, called Expedition and Expedition 2, each included about 1,000 patients with mild to moderate disease.

The drug failed to slow cognitive declines or loss of abilities of daily living for the entire patient population. But when Lilly analyzed results only for mild patients, the data suggested it caused a significant 34 percent slowdown in mental decline and an 18 percent slowdown in loss of functional abilities compared to placebo.

To better assess whether mildly impaired patients benefit from the drug, Lilly extended its two trials by another two years and only enrolled those with mild disease.

Researchers continued to provide solanezumab to patients who had taken it during the studies and also allowed patients who had been given placebos to switch over. Patients who had taken solanezumab all along continued to show a greater benefit than those who switched to the drug later.

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