Alzheimer’s Drug Results Send Stocks Soaring, But Experts Temper Expectations After String Of Failures Against Disease
Biogen and Eisai announced that the drug slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and reduced the amount of clumps of a protein called beta amyloid that build up in the brains of patients. The data cheered even skeptics that have been burned by decades of failed Alzheimer's drugs. But they did warn about getting too excited, as the study is preliminary.
The Wall Street Journal:
Drugmakers Call Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug Study Positive
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug showed positive results and raised hopes anew that pharmaceutical companies were moving closer to a medicine that could finally disrupt the disease’s memory-robbing course, though a string of failures shadow the efforts. Alzheimer’s has proved an especially tough drug target. Approved therapies only relieve symptoms temporarily, and one experimental treatment after another promising to stymie the neurodegeneration has ultimately failed to work. Some pharmaceutical companies, after costly failures, pulled out. (Hernandez and Loftus, 7/6)
Stat:
4 Burning Questions After Biogen's $12 Billion Alzheimer's Surprise
Biogen (BIIB) is worth $12 billion more on Friday than it was the night before thanks to some surprising, if nebulous, new data on an in-development treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The news is undoubtedly positive, but just how positive is a question that has all of biotech puzzling. Here are the biggest questions about BAN2401, Biogen’s Eisai-partnered Alzheimer’s drug that is either the saving grace for a whole wing of neurology or a red herring of tortured data. (Garde, 7/6)