Biotech Values

[Kadaicher1]

Merck BACE inhibitor. I thought we had already seen a BACE inhibitor in trials, LLYs Semagacestat and it was not so promising. It reduced ABeta in the brain, but accelerated cognition loss and increased skin cancer risk. The problem may be that the gamma secretase the LLY drug inhibited is suspected to have an effect on about 40 other proteins in the brain. I think Merck must be going after the other secretase thought to be more specific.

[Some, like Dr. Lon Schneider, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of Southern California, say the drug’s failure may mean the field is rushing off a cliff in its near single-minded focus on blocking the production of amyloid. Dr. Schneider, like most leading Alzheimer’s researchers, consults for a number of drug companies, including Lilly.

The Lilly study’s failure, he said, “chips away at that approach to testing the amyloid hypothesis.”

“We don’t know what the drug targets for Alzheimer’s disease are,” Dr. Schneider said. “We don’t know because we don’t know the causes of Alzheimer’s.”]