Three experimental Alzheimer’s drugs have been chosen for a worldwide clinical study by the Washington University in St. Louis, US. The aim of the study is to determine whether these drugs can prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
The pioneering trial is expected to begin in early 2013 and initially will test three promising drugs, each designed to target Alzheimer’s in different ways. The drugs chosen are gantenerumab (an antibody made by Roche), solanezumab and a beta-secretase inhibitor (both made by Eli Lilly). The trial is supported by a US $4.2 million grant from the Alzheimer’s Association, plus Roche and Lilly have agreed to make the treatments available at no cost to the investigators.
The study will seek to identify whether the drugs can improve Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers and effectively prevent the loss of cognitive function, in people with inherited mutations that cause early-onset Alzheimer’s. The clinical trials will involve 160 people who have inherited mutations that mean they are almost certain to develop Alzheimer’s at a young age, typically in their 30s, 40s or 50s.
Principal investigator Randall Bateman, MD and Joanne Knight, Distinguished Professor in Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
This new trial is planned to last for two years, but will be expanded and extended if one or more of the drugs are effective in slowing or stopping indicators of presymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.
Luca Santarelli, head of Roche Neurosciences.