ARTICLE | Product Development
Two non-amyloid therapies for Alzheimer’s advance to late-stage trials
Novo’s semaglutide to test metabolic, neuroprotective mechanism; AB Science’s masitinib is testing neuroinflammatory hypothesis
December 17, 2020 2:42 AM UTC
December has been a busy month for Alzheimer’s therapies testing new hypotheses outside of amyloid, with the latest coming Wednesday from Novo Nordisk, which said it is taking semaglutide into Phase III testing, and AB Science, which announced a positive initial readout from a Phase IIb/III trial of masitinib.
Fresh off the nearly unanimous advisory committee vote on Nov. 6 against anti-amyloid therapy aducanumab from Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB), which added to — but is unlikely to end — a 20-year losing streak for amyloid-targeted therapies, at least four companies have reported data or other news for therapies that work by new mechanisms outside of the amyloid hypothesis...