Failed Alzheimer’s Trial May Offer Hopeful Signals

Further Trials of Solanezumab

He and Dr. Aisen confirmed, however, that two other trials using solanezumab in different populations would go forward. The Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s study (A4 study) is investigating its effect in cognitively healthy elderly people with Alzheimer’s disease risk factors, and the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network (DIAN) study is investigating its effects in patients with autosomal dominant mutations in Alzheimer’s disease genes.

Dr. Aisen is excited about solanezumab’s potential to target the disease before cognitive symptoms develop. “I expect all antiamyloid treatments would work better when neurodegeneration is not extensive,” he said. “Any of the antiamyloid antibodies would theoretically be more effective at a preclinical stage of Alzheimer’s disease than even in the mild dementia stage.”

Maria Carrillo, PhD, Chief Science Officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, said that EXPEDITION3 was far from a path to nowhere and urged the research community, patients, and families to double down on their commitment to tackling the disease.

“These results stress the urgency for pushing forward harder,” Dr. Carrillo said. “This is not a time to slow down. It’s a time to ramp up our efforts. This is not the time to sit back and say, ‘The amyloid hypothesis has been the wrong pathway, and we need to drop it.’ But we also need to pursue other pathways, to broaden our approach, and to broaden the armamentarium our clinicians will need to combat this disease.

“This is not a win, true. But it gets us a little closer to one.”

—Michele G. Sullivan