More muddled results from the amyloid hypothesis with DIAN-TU readout
Detailed data from Alzheimer’s trial DIAN-TU have not made it any easier to evaluate the amyloid hypothesis
New data from the Alzheimer’s prevention study DIAN-TU suggest that after five plus years of following patients, the results are uninterpretable due to small patient numbers, disease progression failing to match statistical models, anomalies in the placebo data and mid-trial changes in dosing.
The Phase II/III trial, which evaluated gantenerumab from Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) and solanezumab from Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY), marked an important first by enrolling patients with rare mutations that cause early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The genetics of these patients make them arguably the best test population for the amyloid hypothesis, since their mutations lead to abnormal production of the β-amyloid peptide, creating more uniform disease biology and timing than in the larger, late-onset population. ...