Pfizer Drug Study Falls Short For Alzheimer’s

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

In one of two late-stage trials conducted by Pfizer, an experimental Alzheimer’s drug failed to slow the disease’s progress, but the pharma said on Monday that it will continue to study the drug’s effect on the other group.

The injected drug bapineuzumab, being tested through a partnership with Johnson & Johnson, didn’t slow mental or functional decline in patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer’s disease, according to Pfizer, which said the trials were marketed at patients carrying the ApoE4 gene, which gives people a greater risk of developing the disease.

Pfizer said that only half of the population carries the ApoE4 gene, yet it is carrying out a study of the drug in patients without the gene as well. Results of that study is expected to be announced later this summer.

The mid-stage tests of the drug gave scientists “a hint that the people who are carriers of the ApoE4 gene might not have as good a chance as people who are not carriers,” Ellen Rose, spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson, told the Associated Press.

The Phase III drug study is one of four trials being carried out by Pfizer and J&J, both based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The three other studies will continue as planned, Pfizer said in a statement.

Current drugs on the market for Alzheimer’s offer temporary control of symptoms of the disease, but do nothing to slow, stop or reverse the progression of mental decline.