Roche said, in a statement today, Monday, that the two studies conducted together did not reach the desired goal of demonstrating that the drug “gantirumab” can maintain abilities such as memory, problem-solving, guidance and personalized care for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
The Swiss drugmaker conducted two identically designed studies, each with about 1,000 participants, that were examined by doctors over a period of more than two years. In each study, volunteers were randomly assigned to receive ganterumab and some to receive a placebo.
The company said, in a statement, that the drug was associated with a relative decrease in the deterioration of symptoms by about 8 percent in one of the two studies and 6 percent in the other study when comparing those who received the drug and those who were given a placebo, but added that these results are not statistically significant.
Shares of Roche fell 4.4 percent to their lowest in nearly seven weeks.
Shares of “Biogen” and “Eli Lilly”, the American drug maker, which are developing competing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, rose by 3.8 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, in pre-market trading.
In September, Biogen scored surprising success with an experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug it had developed with the Easy Company.
At the time, the two companies said that their experimental drug, lekanimab, slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by 27 percent compared to a placebo in a large trial on patients in the early stages of symptoms.
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