Flurizan Hopes Flattened by Failure in Latest Clinical Trial

I was really hoping that Flurizan would work, given the enormous amount of time and money invested in evaluating whether the drug could successfully inhibit the buildup of beta amyloid plaques in the brain instead of simply alleviating Alzheimer's symptoms.

However, just one month after announcing that it had teamed up with Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck to develop and market Flurizan in Europe, Myriad Genetics, Inc. announced that due to the failure of the drug to pass a late-stage clinical trial, it would discontinue the development of the medication.

H. Lundbeck spent $100 million in its partnership with Myriad to develop the drug. The company will now have to write off the loss in its second quarter earnings.

Flurizan was developed under the assumption that the buildup of beta amyloid in the brain was a primary cause of Alzheimer's disease. Does the drug's failure mean that the beta amyloid theory is debunked? Not necessarily, considering that new research suggests that a certain type of beta amyloid is associated with Alzheimer's disease while other beta amyloid varieties are not.

Still, consider this: Flurizan is the third beta amyloid-targeting treatment under development that was discontinued due to inadequate clinical trial outcomes (the other two were Alzhemed by Neurochem and a vaccine by Wyeth and Elan). Is it time to start taking a longer look at other theories about the causes of Alzheimer's, such as the TNF theory that underlies etanercept treatment?

Illustration © Alzheimer's Disease Education & Referral Center