Eisai Takes Phase 3 Trials of Alzheimer's Disease Second Drug After Failure of First



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Eisai and Biogen jointly developed three experimental drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease: aducanumab, BAN2401 and elenbecestat, all designed to target beta-amyloid protein, a brain-damaging protein. .

"As we thought, aducanumab was the best hope of treating Alzheimer's disease, ending its testing is a big negative surprise," said Motova Kohtani analyst at Nomura Securities .

BAN2401 has been met with skepticism since partners announced promising but confusing results for 18 months in July. Yet, Eisai remains confident in the pursuit of its development.

"We are still convinced that the beta hypothesis of amyloid is potentially the right approach for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease," an Eisai spokesperson told Reuters.

Eisai will conduct phase 3 trials on BAN2401 in 1,566 patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia with Alzheimer 's disease with confirmed accumulation of amyloid.

Alzheimer's disease treatments are said to be particularly difficult to develop because the diagnosis and recruitment of appropriate trial participants are difficult.

According to the Adis R & D Insight database, between 1998 and 2017, only four treatments were approved and another 146 failed.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. In Japan, the government estimates that there will be 7 million people with dementia in 2025, compared with 4.6 million in 2012.

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