Experimental Alzheimer’s drug fails in late-stage trials

Eli Lilly & Co. and AstraZeneca Plc ended two late-stage trials of an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease after the treatment failed to show any signs of working, adding to a litany of disappointments for the memory-robbing illness.

An independent data-monitoring committee found that the medicine, lanabecestat, was unlikely to meet the goals of the studies, one for early Alzheimer’s and the other for mild dementia related to the disease, the companies said in a statement Tuesday. There were no safety concerns, they said.

Like several others that failed, such as Merck & Co.’s verubecestat, the drug targeted a protein called amyloid, thought to be a cause of the disease. The class of medicines known as BACE inhibitors operate before the amyloid has formed into deposits, called plaques. Many researchers now believe that administering drugs after amyloid has built up in the brain may come too late to affect Alzheimer’s progress.

“The complexity of Alzheimer’s disease poses one of the most difficult medical challenges of our time, and we are deeply disappointed for the millions suffering from this devastating disease,” Daniel Skovronsky, president of Lilly Research Labs, said in the statement.

The decision to end the trials won’t have a material financial impact on AstraZeneca, and its guidance for this year remains unchanged, the Cambridge, England-based company said in a separate statement. Lilly doesn’t anticipate significant costs associated with the end of the studies and reaffirmed its outlook for 2018 and the remainder of the decade.

By one count, more than 190 Alzheimer drugs have failed in trials. Spending on care for people alive in the U.S. right now who will develop the affliction is projected to cost $47 trillion over the course of their lives, according to a report in March from the Alzheimer’s Association.

The failures have left analysts pessimistic about many of the experimental medicines that companies are working on. Roger Franklin of Liberum Capital Ltd. said he, like most analysts, had forecast no revenue from lanabecestat for AstraZeneca.

“This is absolutely no surprise to us given failures by others with this so-called BACE inhibitor mechanism and the track record of late-stage Alzheimer’s studies more generally,” he wrote.