Biogen's Alzheimer's Drug Finds Progress Against Plaques
Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 10:41 pm
Test Of Experimental Alzheimer's Drug Finds Progress Against Brain Plaques
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shot ... in-plaques
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shot ... in-plaques
Results from a small number of patients who received a high dose of the drug, called aducanumab, hint that it may also be able to slow the loss of memory and thinking.
"If that hint of a clinical benefit is confirmed, it would be a game changer in the fight against Alzheimer's disease," says Dr. Eric Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Phoenix. Reiman wrote a commentary that accompanies the study in Nature.
But it will take much larger studies to show for sure whether aducanumab really does slow down Alzheimer's disease, Reiman says.
Officials of Biogen, which is developing the drug, were also cautious about interpreting the results of the study, which included 165 patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
"We think we have something important here," says Dr. Alfred Sandrock, chief medical officer for Biogen. "We hope we're right because if it's true it would benefit millions of patients. But we don't know we're right yet."
--------------------------------------------------------
But there's a downside. The process of removing plaque sometimes causes fluid to build up in the brain. In rare cases, it can also cause bleeding. These side effects are known as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, or ARIA.
"We were actually anticipating that we would see it," Sandrock says. And the researchers did. Twenty patients dropped out of the trial because of adverse effects.