Alzheimer’s treatment study ends in failure
A new drug that was tested at a local clinic was pulled from rotation, though some doctors think it was pulled too soon.
A promising treatment for alzheimer’s was pulled from the final phase of testing before fda approval doctors at the lou ruvo center for brain health were one of the clinics forced to stop testing the drug box ives cassie milne erik spoke with the head of clinical research at lou rulin explains why it was pulled yeah that’s right now the last treatment for alzheimer’s
Was manufactured about 15 years ago this new drug created by pharmaceutical company biogen was one of the most promising now the company says that the drug it didn’t show signs that it was actually treating alzheimer’s but a doctor with lou ruvo says that the company didn’t give the drug enough time it’s really hard in a decades-long disease to prove benefit over
The course of a year and a half dr. erin ritter is the director of clinical research at lou ruvo center for brain health he oversees a number of trials affecting patients with diseases like alzheimer’s now one of the most promising treatments has failed so yeah this was a pretty disappointing news for us the treatment is a drug called add you can team ab the drug
Breaks up amyloid protein or plaque which destroys memory and basic functions in the brain it was one of the most successful treatments for alzheimer’s developed in more than a decade so what went wrong what they were trying to show that one in a 1-year period that there there would be a benefit in that one year but also it was just such a slow progressive disease
It’s hard to show benefit within a year dr. ritter says when a pharmaceutical company like biogen begins a billion dollar trial they set checkpoints that way the company isn’t losing money on a drug that will never get fda approval the drug wasn’t showing results in a time biogen wanted so alzheimer’s disease is a disease that people are affected for for years
To decades they were trying to show in a period of one year or a year and a half the medicine would have a big impact on the disease course that’s a pretty high bar to set le ruvo eight patients with early alzheimer’s were taking part in the trial when the trial first began back in 2016 we talked with one of those patients oh just have to keep focusing on what’s
Right in front of me but i’ll do whatever is offered to me to try to get better dr. ritter and his team halted their trial but they aren’t giving up they’re participating in a number of other clinical studies to beat alzheimer’s everybody that’s over the age of 60 is at risk for developing alzheimer’s disease and we don’t have effective therapies right now so we
Need to continue the fight against this disease because this disease is not stopping an ad you can deem ab was near the top of only a handful of drugs that had any chance to make it to patients in the next ten years by that time alzheimer’s cases in nevada could shoot up as much as 80% the cost to treat patients nationwide by the middle of the century would be a
Trillion dollars a year live in studio kassi malarek fox 5 news local las vegas
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Alzheimer's treatment study ends in failure By FOX5 Las Vegas