Pfizer-Backed Experimental Drug for Alzheimer’s Fails in Trial
Bad news on the Alzheimer’s drug development front: Pfizer and Medivation announced negative results from a large late-stage trial of Dimebon, thought to be a promising treatment more potent than those currently on the market.
Dimebon, you may remember, got its start a quarter-century ago as a Russian cold medicine that Pfizer plunked down $225 million for licensing rights in 2008. The deal also included potential milestone payments of as much as $500 million.
The drug, considered to be the compound furthest along of those in development to treat Alzheimer’s, had shown impressive effects in a trial 183 Russian patients. But scientists in the field have questioned the small size of the study and the whether the findings could be applied to other populations since it was conducted in Russia.
The companies say it’s too early to say why the results look they way they did. Pfizer and Medivation now will do a deep dive into the data to figure out if there were any mix-ups or “subleties” in the study design that might be responsible, and whether there might be subgroups in the study population who did benefit, Briggs Morrison, who oversees Pfizer’s clinical development of late-stage Alzheimers compounds, told the Health […]
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