Replies to post #342367 on Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[Investor2014]

I am not sure we disagree.

If there is no selection on patients characteristics biomarkers, there is no precision medicine! There may be precision research, thoroughness etc.

At present there has been no selection and as you say because it appears all patients on average may benefit sufficiently well to achieve stat sig results without the need for very large trials. We don’t know for sure yet, but we will get insights to that when eventually we see about AVATAR and EXCELLENCE.

I can’t know if and when Anavex might select for patients with certain biomarkers. I can see though that slide 5 indicates so.

If Anavex are not at some point selecting on biomarkers they shine in borrowed feathers without benefiting from the increased chances of success that slide 5 is claiming. That is my point - be careful thinking we have increased chance of success because of the precision medicine claims.

[RedShoulder]

I think that Anavex is hot on the trail of identifying biomarkers. So far I haven't seen any reason to exclude any subjects on the basis of biomarkers.

My reasoning is this: the mutated variant of the SR1 gene subjects still positively respond to 2-73 albeit not as well. In this case identifying the biomarker allows for separating out the subgroup for data analysis in the same way that excluding those subjects would do. At the same time including the sub group also allows for demonstrating that the sub group does in fact benefit from 2-73 but not as much. By having the subgrouping the strong response of the wild type SR1 subjects is not diluted in the data analysis by the mutant variant which would be the case if both type were lumped together. That is a win win situation.

Well said Steady, and I agree, I think it was wise to separate the wild type SR-1 from the less responsive mutant variant for a better trail result for that cohort, rather than lumping them together for a weaker score than the robust wild type alone; representing around 90% of the AD population. That said, even the mutant variation will benefit, but just to a lesser degree. Plus he now has at least one solid biomarker.