A Biogen scientist works on Alzheimer’s disease research in a laboratory at the drugmaker’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. US government health advisers sharply criticized a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug on Friday, concluding there wasn’t enough evidence that the experimental drug slowed the brain-destroying disease. The panel of outside experts for the Food and Drug Administration agreed that a pivotal study in patients failed to show “strong evidence” that the drug worked. The Biogen drug, known as aducanumab, does not cure or reverse Alzheimer’s; the claim is that it modestly slows the rate of decline. In the positive study, the drug modestly slowed the rate of mental decline -- a difference of only 0.39 on an 18-point score of thinking skills.

Source: The Standard November 06, 2020 22:52 UTC