Trial of New Alzheimer’s Drug Reports Disappointing Results

“The pathogenic mutation in the Colombian family is known to be involved in amyloid metabolism,” Dr. Gandy said, adding, “The thinking was that these were the patients most likely to respond to anti-amyloid antibodies.”

Dr. Pierre Tariot, the director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and a leader of the Colombian research, said some of the data did suggest that patients receiving crenezumab fared better than those receiving the placebo, but the differences were not statistically significant.

He also said there were no safety problems with the drug, an important finding because many anti-amyloid therapies, including Aduhelm, have caused brain bleeding or swelling in some patients.

Additional data from the trial will be presented at a conference in August. Dr. Tariot and Dr. Reiman noted that Thursday’s results did not include more detailed information from brain imaging or blood analysis of the drug’s effects on proteins and other aspects of the biology of Alzheimer’s. They also did not reflect increases in the dose of crenezumab, which researchers began giving to patients as they learned more about the drug, Dr. Tariot said. He said some patients received up to two years of the highest dose during the five to eight years they were in the clinical trial.

Dr. Francisco Lopera, a Colombian neurologist and another leader of the research, began working with the family members decades ago and helped determine that their affliction was a genetic form of Alzheimer’s. He said the trial had convinced him that “prevention is the best way of looking for the solution for Alzheimer’s disease, even if today we don’t have a good result.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/16/health/alzheimers-drug-crenezumab.html