NIH awards $45M for AD research
NIH awarded $45 million to support seven projects for Alzheimer's disease research. The awards aim to develop products to prevent disease progression and to identify and validate new therapeutic targets.
Researchers at the Banner Alzheimer's Institute will receive the largest award, $33.2 million, to support a five-year prevention trial to evaluate an anti-amyloid product, which has not yet been selected, in cognitively normal older volunteers with two copies of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon 4 allele. Washington University's four-year Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Trials Unit (DIAN-TU) Trial received $1.5 million, with the potential for $6 million over four years. DIAN-TU will evaluate gantenerumab from Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY), solanezumab from Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) and a third to be determined drug in volunteers who have inherited mutations known to cause early onset AD. Gantenerumab and solanezumab are both a mAbs against beta amyloid in Phase III testing for AD. Trial sponsors include Roche, Lilly and the Alzheimer's Association. ...