That's true that BRAVE is a very small trial. And its purpose was to determine whether a bigger trial should be done. But treatments for Alzheimer's are desperately needed. And Amarin is blessed in that Vascepa is already approved for use by the FDA. So if the trial has positive results, doctors could immediately prescribe it off label, and the potential population of those who would be helped by it would be gigantic.
More important, though, is that it would be an enormous selling point for potential buyers of the company. The value of the company would instantly rise, whether it is reflected in increased prescriptions or not. Have you seen what happens to the stocks of companies who have successful Alzheimer's trials? And most of these companies do not yet have FDA approval for the drugs. And it's good that the trial was carried out by one of the nation's leading researchers into Alzheimer's treatments.
The fact that the trial got participants who were not yet showing memory issues is not a negative. It's a positive. Of the thousands of trials of drugs for use in the Alzheimer's treatment arena, almost all of them focus on treatment for those already afflicted. That, as you can imagine, is a much smaller population than those who fear they'll get it. The first drug that can be touted as delaying the onset of Alzheimer's would likely become a blockbuster. Let's hope Vascepa is so lucky.
As for the length of the trial, I think it began in 2017 and it's now six years later. So we can also hope that it was long enough to show some trends. Remember that the population of veterans that was targeted with the study is particularly vulnerable to Alzheimer's.