BOSTON—Pooled data from a secondary analysis of two large phase III trials of solanezumab suggest that the drug may modestly slow cognitive loss in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, according to a presentation by Rachelle S. Doody, MD, PhD, at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association (ANA).
The trials, EXPEDITION 1 and EXPEDITION 2, were conducted by Eli Lilly to study the effects of solanezumab, a humanized anti–amyloid-beta monoclonal antibody that binds to soluble amyloid-beta. In August, Lilly reported that its early analysis of the data indicated that both studies failed to meet their cognitive and functional primary end points.
Further Analysis, New Hope? The solanezumab analysis presented at the ANA meeting was independently performed by the Data Analysis and Publications Committee of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS). “As part of our contract with [Lilly], the ADCS receives the raw data from the company, which is really quite unusual, and there are no constraints on our analysis,” said Dr. Doody, Effie Marie Cain Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
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