For the past few years, there’s been a lot of excitement surrounding the idea of a potential drug that could slow down, if not reverse, the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on patients. With there being no real treatment on the market right now, coupled with just how prevalent the disease is getting, it’s no wonder that traders jump whenever there’s news about a potential Alzheimer’s drug hitting the market. Eli Lilly (NASDAQ: LLY) announced results for its Alzheimer’s candidate over the weekend, with the results being fairly strong, although not exceptional.
Eli Lilly’s treatment, called donanemab, is an intravenous infusion that attempts to break down the root cause of Alzheimer’s, a type of plague called amyloid that builds up in the nerve cells of the brain.
Around 250 patients were enrolled in the phase 2 study, with the main requirement being they were experiencing initial symptoms. While donanemab wasn’t marketed as a drug that could reverse Alzheimer’s, the trial was meant to see just how much it could slow down the disease’s onset. According to the new trial data that was released this weekend, disease progress had slowed down by around 32%. Patients were given treatment once a month for six years. While that’s still a pretty good result, a lot of people who hoping to see better performance from donanemab.
“We are confident in the results of the TRAILBLAZER-ALZ study. This is the first late-stage study in Alzheimer’s disease to meet its primary endpoint at the primary analysis. Donanemab has the potential to become a very important treatment for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., Lilly’s chief scientific officer. “We were pleased to see not only slowing of cognitive and functional decline, but also very substantial clearance of amyloid plaques and slowing of spread of tau pathology.”
Historically, the field of Alzheimer’s drug development has been filled with plenty of failures. To this date, there hasn’t been a single successful treatment developed so far, as companies struggled to find a mechanism that helps prevent brain function deterioration. However, there’s been a lot of hope riding on Eli Lilly’s upcoming treatment, which seems like it could have some potential for the tens of millions of people worldwide suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Despite the results not being as good as some were expecting, shares of Eli Lilly are still up right now in pre-market trading. At the moment, stock prices are gaining 1.4% and could rise a little bit more once traders wake up and jump on the news Monday morning.
While Eli Lilly has done pretty well over the past 12 months, gaining around 60%. What’s more, shares could skyrocket if this Alzheimer’s drug its developing eds up getting approved after all. It all a question of whether or not the FDA sees these results are being compelling enough to warrant approval.
Eli Lilly Company Profile
Eli Lilly is a drug company with a focus on neuroscience, endocrinology, oncology, and immunology. Lilly’s key products include Alimta and Verzenio for cancer; Jardiance, Trulicity, Humalog, and Humulin for diabetes; and Taltz and Olumiant for immunology. – Warrior Trading News
