2 more drugs fail to combat Alzheimer’s in trials

Eli Lilly & Co. and AstraZeneca Plc have ended two late-stage trials of an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease after the treatment failed to show signs of working.

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, 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 might come too late to affect Alzheimer’s progress.

Despite billions of dollars spent searching for a treatment, there are no medicines that slow the progress of Alzheimer’s. By one count, more than 190 Alzheimer drugs have failed in trials.

The U.S. is projected to spend $277 billion on Alzheimer’s or other dementia care in 2018 alone, with an aging cohort of baby boomers pushing that number to $1.1 trillion by 2050.