US & UK drugmakers end ‘futile’ Alz’s treatment trial
Ebola outbreak not over
LONDON, June 13, (AFP): British and American pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly on Tuesday said they were ending a large clinical trial of a treatment for Alzheimer’s that they had been developing jointly.
The decision to scrap the phase III clinical trial comes as a major setback in the race to find a cure for the disease, which is the most common form of dementia and affects millions of people around the world.
With a clinical trial failure rate of over 99 percent, there is still no licenced drug that slows Alzheimer’s progression or cures it.
“We are saddened by this outcome as our researchers are working tirelessly to find a solution for the many people who are impacted by this devastating disease,” Menelas Pangalos, executive vice president of AstraZeneca said in a statement.
“We won’t give up on finding a solution for Alzheimer’s patients,” Daniel Skovronsky, president of Lilly Research Labs added.
The two firms announced a partnership to develop a new drug aimed at combatting Alzheimer’s in 2014.
They were working on two treatments — one for patients with early Alzheimer’s disease, the other for those with mild Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
Both treatments used a so-called “inhibitor” targeting an enzyme called BACE.
According to the statement, an independent data monitoring committee ruled that both the treatments “were not likely to meet their primary end-points upon completion and therefore should be stopped for futility”.
The statement also said the discontinuation of the trials was not expected to have any financial impact on the firms’ outlook for 2018.
Health systems in Western countries are struggling to deal with Alzheimer’s as it is costly to treat sufferers of the incurable disease which leaves them increasingly reliant on assistance.
US pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer announced in January it was pulling out of neuroscience research entirely.
Swiss giants Roche and Axovant, as well US firm Merck have all tried unsuccessfully to come up with the solution to Alzheimer’s.
According to the World Health Organization, some 50 million people around the world have dementia, with Alzheimer’s accounting for 60-70 percent of the cases.
As the world’s population ages, the number of patients is expected to double by 2030 and to triple by 2050 if no cure is found.
The global cost of caring for sufferers was set to reach $1 trillion (850 billion euros) this year.
According to the Alzforum website, which gathers data on candidate drugs, fewer than 300 have made it to Phase II trials so far.
Only five have ever been approved to treat symptoms such as memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s, a disease first identified more than 100 years ago.
“Although dementia mainly affects older people, it is not a normal part of ageing,” the WHO says on its website.
KINSHASA:
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom on Tuesday called for tighter monitoring as he wrapped up a visit to Ebola-hit DR Congo, saying the outbreak was far from over despite the number of cases stabilising in recent weeks.
The outbreak — the ninth in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1976 — was declared on May 8 and has claimed 27 lives.
“On the basis of statistics, we can say that the situation has stabilised but the war is not over, we must reinforce vigilance and surveillance,” he said at the end of a three-day assessment visit.
“One case in an urban setting can set off an outbreak,” he warned.
His comments come after the WHO and NGOs since May 21 began helping DRC immunise front-line workers with a vaccine that has shown to be highly effective in trials, though it still awaits regulatory approval.
KIEV:
Also:
Eleven people, including seven children, have died of measles in Ukraine this year after an outbreak in the war-scarred nation and adjoining Romania, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
More than 20,500 people, including 12,200 children, have contracted the potentially dangerous illness since the start of the year, it said.
Two fatalities were recorded this month, taking the number of deaths in 2018 to 11.
The highly contagious viral disease, characterised by high fever and small red spots, usually triggers only mild symptoms, but remains one of the leading causes of death among young children globally.