Neurodegenerative disease
After previously failing studies in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, dalzanemdor’s latest stumble in Huntington’s disease has pushed Sage Therapeutics to pull the plug on the NMDA receptor modulator.
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Analysts did not seem very concerned by the treatment-related serious adverse event, noting that NGN-401 was well-tolerated at a lower dose and showed promising efficacy outcomes.
This year has seen several biopharma companies drop Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease programs, but experts say plenty are still chasing these multi-billion-dollar markets.
Approved by the FDA in July to treat adults with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, Eli Lilly’s Kisunla reduced the brain swelling of patients in a late-stage trial following an adjusted dosing regimen.
Researchers have linked Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide to a 40% to 70% reduction in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis in a study of medical records from 1 million patients.
Roche drops a third Alzheimer’s candidate this year, terminating a partnership with UCB just four years after agreeing to work together on new treatments for the neurological disease.
Wave Life Sciences in a Tuesday filing with the SEC said Takeda has elected to terminate its option to continue work on Wave’s WVE-003 clinical-stage Huntington’s disease program—a potential $5 billion commercial opportunity, according to the biotech.
Sage has decided to discontinue the development of dalzanemdor in Alzheimer’s disease. A study of the candidate in Huntington’s is ongoing, with early data expected later this year.
With Monday’s data from SAPPHIRE, Scholar Rock is building toward regulatory submissions for apitegromab in spinal muscular atrophy in the first quarter of 2025.
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