July 22, 2015 (any more recent news?)
Shares of Biogen and Eli Lilly fell Wednesday after highly anticipated updates on the company's Alzheimer's programs.
Both drugs aim to clear amyloid plaque buildups from the brain in an effort to slow Alzheimer's cognitive declines. The drugmakers said Wednesday both showed signs they may do that. Lilly's drug displayed consistently better results the longer patients took its drug, while Biogen's showed it yielded stronger efficacy the higher the dose.
While Biogen called its update encouraging, investors were hoping a closely watched middle dose would significantly clear amyloid plaques from the brain and slow Alzheimer's cognitive declines. In the update Wednesday, it individually succeeded on the first, but didn't show statistical significance on two measures of cognition. The stock was down 4.8 percent in early morning trading. (For a real-time stock quote, click here.)
Lilly shares fell 3.3 percent in early trading. (For a real-time stock quote, click here.)
Overall, Biogen Chief Medical Officer Alfred Sandrock said, the 166-patient trial showed the medicine showed efficacy on both measures over the course of the year, and that it increased the higher the dose.
Read More › CNBC Explains: New Alzheimer's drugs
"The data are completely consistent with and only reinforce what we saw back in March," Biogen Chief Medical Officer Alfred Sandrock said in a telephone conversation, referring to results that drove the company's stock up 11 percent as investors hoped the company was onto a drug that could modify the course of the disease.
Lilly's Alzheimer's drug
Lilly reported data Wednesday from a follow-on study of two of its earlier trials. The drug, solanezumab, had missed its overall goals in those studies, but showed signs of efficacy among patients in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's. Lilly continued testing the medicine on those patients, and in this analysis, switched the patients who had taken placebo onto the drug as well.
Known as a delayed-start analysis, the study compared patients who started 1.5 years later with those taking the drug all along. In the results reported Wednesday, Lilly showed the patients who started later didn't catch up with those taking the drug for longer, but maintained a consistent difference on measures of cognition.
BMO analyst Alex Arfaei, in a note Tuesday, said investors may hope to see the benefit increase over time, and said the stock may decline slightly on the update.
Lilly said the results support the design of its large late-stage study, expected to conclude next year, which may be the basis of filing for regulatory approval.
