Product Development

Lilly’s amyloid therapy not a big step forward from Biogen’s

But the pharma’s strategy for selecting Alzheimer’s patients could set it apart

The pharma is taking donanemab into a confirmatory Alzheimer’s trial with an effect size similar to aducanuamb, but a more sophisticated approach to selecting patients.

With a more sophisticated protocol for selecting patients and positive Phase II data in hand, Eli Lilly is heading into a confirmatory trial of its Alzheimer’s therapy donanemab in an arguably stronger position than Biogen was in when it took aducanumab directly from Phase Ib into Phase III.

There’s little else to differentiate the two, based on the data released Monday. 

The strength of Lilly’s