MSD’s Alzheimer’s drug failure undermines potential treatment pathway

MSD, known as Merck in North America, has announced that it has been forced to cancel a Phase 2/3 trial studying the potential therapeutic effects of verubecestat in Alzheimer’s patients. The failure of the drug to show efficacy draws into question how amyloid plaques are being targeted and whether this is now a viable target for treatment. The trial was stopped by an independent panel of experts that concluded that there was “virtually no chance of finding a positive clinical effect”. The news comes as a further blow to the hope of developing a new treatment for Alzheimer’s, which has not had a new form of treatment reach the market in over a decade. It is the second such failure to occur within the industry in the last few months, with Lilly having to abandon its own Alzheimer’s treatment after it displayed no statistical difference to patients compared with the placebo arm.