Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant who has hidden one of its drugs seems to prevent Alzheimer's disease

At that time, however, the US pharmaceutical giant had already invested millions of dollars in finding alternatives to treat these forms of dementia and had concluded that their money would be better spent elsewhere.

In fact, Pfizer justified its decision with "the result of an expenditure reallocation exercise, which aimed to focus on the areas in which our product portfolio and our scientific expertise are stronger".

But, as the Washington Post just unveiled, the company was careful to reveal that at the time it had chosen not to verify or share the results of a study with potentially huge implications for the fight against the disease. Alzheimer.

And it seems much harder to explain – or at least understand – especially considering that dementia is considered "the greatest health challenge of our time".

The study in question relies on the badysis of hundreds of thousands of insurance claims, according to which one of the most popular drugs of Pfeizer – Enbrel, a bulking agent used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis – seemed reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease in 64%.

"Enbrel could potentially prevent, treat and slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease safely," reads a presentation prepared for an internal committee of Pfeizer in early 2018.

The pharmacist, however, confirmed to The Washington Post that he had not only excluded the completion of the clinical test that would have verified or excluded this badumption, but also decided not to make the discovery public.

"The company said (…) that during its three-year internal review, it had decided that Enbrel did not look promising for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. because the drug did not directly reach the brain tissue, "the US newspaper reported.

Pfizer also explained that the probability of success of a clinical trial was considered low and that a summary of its statistical results, prepared for external publication, did not meet its "rigorous scientific standards".

"Invalid route"

"Pfizer stated that it chose not to publish its data because of its doubts about the results, and said that the publication of this information could have taken external scientists to an invalid channel," said Post newspaper. appointment to prestigious scientists criticizing the decision of the pharmaceutical group.

"Of course they should have done it, why not?", Said, for example, Rudolph E. Tanzi, a prominent scholar on Alzheimer's disease and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

"This data would be useful to the scientific community," said Keenan Walker, another Alzheimer's disease scholar and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. "All the data, no matter what they are. positive or negative, provide us with more information to make better decisions. "

For the rest, Pfizer knows very well that drugs designed to treat one condition may be more useful than others, as the case of Viagra shows.

The famous blue pill was developed by the pharmaceutical company to fight against high blood pressure, but ended up generating tens of billions of dollars in benefits for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

But it is not proven that the story could have been repeated with Enbrel and Alzheimer, especially because the drug is no longer protected by an exclusive patent, as it did at the time with Viagra.

And, for many badysts, this could also have explained Pfizer's decision, although his spokesman, Ed Harnaga, said the decisions were made exclusively on scientific grounds.

BBC.