Phase III comeback for Bayer’s asundexian in stroke prevention: Clinical Report

Beyond a headline-grabbing string of neurology failures, the past seven days also brought good news, with Bayer’s asundexian succeeding in a Phase III study for secondary stroke prevention. The result marked a turnaround from the therapy’s late-stage miss in atrial fibrillation.

It’s been a challenging week for the neurology field, with Novo Nordisk A/S (CSE:NOVO B; NYSE:NVO) announcing that oral semaglutide failed to slow Alzheimer’s progression in a pair of Phase III trials,  and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) reporting a Phase II miss for Alzheimer’s candidate posdinemab, an anti-tau mAb that was widely believed to target a key epitope driving spread of tau pathology in the brain. On top of those announcements, a muscarinic M1 receptor-targeting therapy failed a Phase II study in multiple sclerosis, adding another disappointment to a recently hot target class...