A biotech founded by a 32-year-old has a shot to launch 'the first new Alzheimer’s drug in 15 years'

pulse

August 30, 2017 3:53 PM

Axovant is hoping its Alzheimer's drug inteperdine will be the first one in 15 years to get approved, with key data from a phase 3 trial coming in September.

Alzheimer's affects 5 million Americans, a number that's expected to balloon to
On average about
Axovant is hoping its Alzheimer's drug will be the first one in 15 years to get approved, with key data from its late-stage trial coming in September.

The search for treatments for Alzheimer's disease hasn't been going well.

The past decade has been filled with failures, with 99% of all Alzheimer's drugs failing in clinical trials. There are only four approved drugs that treat the symptoms of the disease, and the most recent drug approval happened in 2003.

That could change if Axovant, a company with a 32-year-old founder, gets positive results in a late-stage trial for its Alzheimer's drug in September. If the results are good and the FDA agrees, the drug could be approved by 2018.

The drug has an unusual backstory:GlaxoSmithKline sold intepirdine to Axovant in 2014 for $5 million. At GSK, the drug

The goal of the drug is to treat the symptoms associated with the disease, such as cognition and behavior changes. intepirdine, as far as researchers know, can't reverse the effects of Alzheimer's or cure the disease. More realistically, Hung said he's hopeful they might find a disease-modifying effect, which could.

Axovant isn't the only drug that's taken this approach: In February, Danish drugmaker Lundbeck said two of its trials on the company's 5HT6 antagonist had failed. In 2016, Pfizer shut down its trials on a drug that acted on the 5HT6 receptor as well.

Should intepirdine fail, Hung still has big plans for Axovant.

The company's also looking at how intepirdine works in people who have Lewy Body Dementia, a neurodegenerative disease with symptoms that look like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. In that trial, people received a higher dose of intepirdine. It's expected to have results by the end of the year. Axovant also has three other drugs, which are earlier in development.

"Some people think that we're a one-trick pony. And I think we have seven tricks," Hung said.

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