Slow progress, but progress nonetheless, is being made in the quest for a drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The pursuit has been marked by pharmaceutical failures, but a network of the world’s top dementia scientists released an optimistic report this week remarking on the number of drugs that are making it to phase two and phase three of clinical trials.
“The topline is the numbers,” said UsAgainstAlzheimer’s acting president Drew Holzapfel in a report to CNBC. “Almost 100 drugs are in the final stages of drug development…despite so much national news about failures this year.”
The number of drugs in phase two clinical trials has increased 17 percent over the past year, from 58 to 68 drugs, according to the report from nonprofit UsAgainstAlzheimer’s and its affiliate of top scientists, ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s. The group forecasts eight of those drugs could make it to the market over the next five years.
Researchers are definitely up against it in their pursuit for drugs to both treat and prevent Alzheimer’s. According to an annual report from The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, a founding member of ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s, there is a 99.6% failure rate for drugs. In 2017 there were over 100 phase two and phase three clinical trials. Of note, it’s been 14 years since the last drug was approved to treat Alzheimer’s — and that drug simply treated symptoms, not the root of the disease.
In a will contest or trust contest, the parties sometimes argue “well, the person was ok because he was on dementia meds” or something to that effect. Not so. Like the failure rate for clinical trials, current pharmaceutical treatment does little more than delay the downward trendline for cognitive decline. Knowledge is power in the inheritance dispute arena.
The biggest breakthrough, which we reported on last week, was Biogen’s clinical trial results for BAN2401, the first anti-amyloid drug to receive positive later stage Alzheimer’s results. However, Biogen’s drug release into the market is still far away, with a phase three trial not expected until late 2019 or 2020. Biogen researchers pointed out that the results showed the drug could slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s, but it did not stop the decline or reverse it.
Much of the Alzheimer’s drug research has been lambasted for simply focusing on the protein beta amyloid, including Biogen’s BAN2401, but Holzapfel reported to CNBC that progress is being made targeting other Alzheimer’s treatments, with a 20 percent increase in the number of symptomatic drugs in phase three. Symptomatic treatments seek to alleviate patient’s discomfort and anxiety, but the results are often temporary. These drugs aren’t actively changing the evolution of a disease with disease-modifying agents, which is the aim of amyloid drugs. Researchers do report that more active trials focus on another protein besides beta amyloid, the tau protein. Among the phase two drugs that are currently being tested, 11 are targeting the tau protein, which is a 57 percent increase from last year. Still, the number of drugs targeting amyloid is higher, at 12, but increased less this year.
Despite some daunting circumstances, Alzheimer’s research organizations such as ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s are still pushing for more funding for health-care systems and clinical trials. Even though the focus is on failed trials, it’s important to note that these experiences are strengthening our understanding of the disease and the science surrounding it. Valuable knowledge is being gained from past trials and the quest very much continues for solid, effective drugs against Alzheimer’s
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352873718300180