Eli Lilly & Co. said late Wednesday that a drug aimed at preventing Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms start has failed to slow down cognitive decline in healthy older adults at risk of developing the disease.
The drug, solanezumab, did not clear and did not halt the accumulation of amyloid plaque on people who had the plaque but no clinical symptoms of the disease yet, Lilly
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said.
That ends solanezumab’s clinical development, the company said. The data generated “have increased our understanding of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease and will advance the next generation of AD prevention studies,” the company said.
Lilly shares edged lower in the extended session after ending the regular trading day up 0.6%. Solanezumab had failed before, with analysts saying then they were not “optimistic” about it.
Lilly said that solanezumab, which binds only to soluble amyloid-beta proteins, “was not expected to significantly remove deposited amyloid plaques.”
Its other investigational Alzheimer’s treatments, donanemab and remternetug, “are different from solanezumab in that they specifically target deposited amyloid plaque and have been shown to lead to plaque clearance in treated patients,” the company said.
Shares of Lilly have gained 20% in the past 12 months, contrasting with a loss of about 4% for the S&P 500 index
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