SAN DIEGO: Novo Nordisk in 2020 launched pivotal trials of its GLP-1 drug semaglutide in Alzheimer’s sufferers based mostly on research in people, animals and real-world findings, a high firm government stated on Tuesday (Dec 2), acknowledging criticism that Novo’s research had design flaws.
Though the trials failed to point out statistically important slowing of cognitive decline in sufferers given the drug, “we nonetheless assume it was the correct resolution … a scientific query that wanted a solution,” Peter Johannsen, Novo’s worldwide medical vice chairman, stated in an handle on the Medical Trials in Alzheimer’s Illness assembly in San Diego.
Information, now consolidated on Novo’s web site, had proven proof that the GLP-1 hormone is concerned in neurotransmission, with a number of results throughout the mind, he stated.
Whereas Alzheimer’s is outlined by the presence of poisonous amyloid plaques within the mind, “there are nonetheless issues we do not know” in regards to the pathology of the illness, Johannsen stated. “This can be a very complicated illness with plenty of issues happening with completely different genetic signatures.”
Novo is slated to current on Wednesday preliminary outcomes from the 2 2-year research that examined Novo’s GLP-1 diabetes tablet Rybelsus towards a placebo in almost 4,000 Alzheimer’s sufferers.
Full outcomes can be offered at a distinct medical assembly in March. The corporate issued a brief press launch final week saying the research didn’t meet their objectives.
