LONDON \u2014 An experimental Alzheimer\u2019s drug from Biogen, designed with a novel approach, slowed patients\u2019 cognitive decline in a mid-stage trial at roughly comparable rates as approved medicines, new data that bolstered the company\u2019s case to move the treatment into a Phase 3 trial.<\/p>\n
Although experts will wait to see the pivotal trial data before making their final assessments of the drug, called diranersen, the results from the Phase 2 trial, if backed up in the larger study, could rekindle the debate about how strong trial results have to be to signify that a drug can offer meaningful benefits for patients and caregivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, Alzheimer\u2019s specialists said they believed the drug was having an effect on disease progression given that different doses of diranersen led to improvements in patient performance on a number of tests compared to placebo. The drug also demonstrated an ability to lower the levels of a protein called tau, which forms toxic tangles in the brain and is associated with memory loss and the onset of other symptoms of Alzheimer\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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