According to Cynthia Fox, writing in Drug Discovery & Development (April 28), "The Biogen anti-amyloid antibody, aducanumab, took the 12th International Conference on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases in Nice, France by storm last month. The drug seemed able to significantly reduce amyloid in patients' brains, while demonstrably slowing cognitive degeneration. It had analysts and scientists alike buzzing." Fox went on to say that people have begun to have reservations about the drug as time has gone by, while others have remained optimistic to a greater or lesser degree.
The drug seemed to be the highlight of the 12th International Conference on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases. As a result, Biogen's stock went up 10 percent. According to Fox's article the company attributed the success to the fact that the antibody clung to amyloid multimers in the brain, as opposed to monomers. "This let it cling to amyloid during a critical phase, when it was aggregating," according to Fox's account.
However, people began to express reservations about careful PET scans to confirm existence of plaque that might have bolstered the outcome, the choice of patients in the early stages of the disease, the small sample size and the questionable statistical significance. Those factors, plus another study claiming that tau was more critical in Alzheimer's than amyloid, have made many researchers skeptical -- or at least wishing to take a wait-and-see attitude -- about the Biogen drug candidate. They have concluded that it is too early to get excited until more data can be made available.
Source: Drug Discovery & Development
(The Story of Biogen's Alzheimer's Drug, Aducanumab, Tue, 04/28/2015 - 10:28am, by Cynthia Fox, Science Editor)
http://www.dddmag.com/articles/2015/04/story-biogens-alzheimers-drug-aducanumab