Search for a cure for Alzheimer’s is ‘futile’, say AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly
Two of the biggest names in Big Pharma pull funding from a large clinical trial for the disease while Pfizer is pulling out of neuroscience research entirely
London — British and American pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly said on Tuesday that they were ending a large clinical trial of a treatment for Alzheimer’s that they had been developing together. The decision to scrap the phase III clinical trial is a major setback in the race to find a cure for the disease, which is the most common form of dementia affecting millions of people around the world. "We are saddened by this outcome as our researchers are working tirelessly to find a solution for the many people who are impacted by this devastating disease," Menelas Pangalos, executive vice-president of AstraZeneca said in a statement. "We won’t give up on finding a solution for Alzheimer’s patients," Daniel Skovronsky, president of Lilly Research Labs added. The two firms had announced a partnership to develop a new drug aimed at combating Alzheimer’s in 2014. They were working on two treatments, one for patients of early Alzheimer’s disease, the other for those with mild ...
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