Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

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Once Again, an Anti-Amyloid MAB Fails.

An anti-amyloid monoclonal antibody therapy for Alzheimer’s has proven to fail, but that doesn’t deter the “amyloid is it” crowd in Alzheimer’s research. The drug is Solanezumab. Here’s a statement on what clinical results research have shown for the drug:

“The results were very clear and consistent,” said co-principal investigator Reisa Sperling, MD, Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “We did not see any evidence that treatment with solanezumab slowed cognitive decline or the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Solanezumab did slightly slow the rate of increase in amyloid in the brain but did not decrease amyloid plaque load.”

The entire article is here:
https://www.endalznow.org/alz-news/data-from-unsuccessful-alzheimers-trial-may-help-future-studies?j=3083936&e=[e-mail]&l=27527_HTML&u=100235227&mid=518002849&jb=981

But, of course, this drug’s failure, targeting amyloid accumulations in nerves and neurons, hasn’t weakened the persisting notion that the solution to the Alzheimer’s problem resides solely within amyloid deposits:

Dr. Sperling emphasizes that researchers need to be more aggressive about decreasing amyloid plaques in the brain even at the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The findings clearly show that the amount of amyloid in the brain is predictive of future decline. In other words, starting earlier when there is less amyloid in the brain and reducing amyloid plaque burden may be key factors.

Readers of this message board who believe that Anavex has competition from any or all of the anti-amyloid monoclonal antibody drugs are grossly mistaken. Doubtless, the amyloids are correlated with or actual causes of Alzheimer’s symptoms. But trying to prevent or remove them by monoclonal antibodies (MABs) always fails. The MAB approach works too weakly and too far downstream in the Alzheimer’s disease process. In contrast to blarcamesine, which successfully works upstream, at the very start of reaction cascades that otherwise devolve into outright Alzheimer’s.