Roche teams up with Lilly to validate Alzheimer's blood test
Corrects final paragraph to show Quest and C2N have blood tests on the market
By Ludwig Burger and Julie Steenhuysen
March 22 (Reuters) -Roche ROG.S and Eli Lilly and Co LLY.N are joining forces to develop a blood test for Alzheimer's disease, and plan to kick off a two-year clinical trial involving hundreds of volunteers with the aim of winning U.S. regulatory approval.
The effort, unveiled in a statement on Wednesday, comes as Lilly as well as Eisai 4523.T and Biogen BIIB.O are gearing up to sell drugs aimed at slowing the advance of the mind-robbing illness, but their use will require a diagnosis at earlier disease stages than is the norm today.
Roche Holding AG would recruit several hundred volunteers with early signs of dementia over the next 18 to 24 months with trial data potentially ready for a U.S. regulatory filing in 2025, Bruce Jordan, leader of Personalized Healthcare Solutions at Roche Diagnostics, told Reuters.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked Roche to recruit a significant number of patients at primary care facilities or family doctors, which has made the trial "a huge undertaking" because the rate of Alzheimer's among those seeking initial help for dementia is as yet uncertain.
"We acknowledge that this is something that a single entity does not have the best chance of solving on its own, so we partnered up with Lilly," said Jordan.
Eisai 4523.T and Biogen's BIIB.O drug Leqembi won FDA approval in January under an accelerated review process, seen as a major breakthrough in therapy development.
"We are incredibly excited that there are going to be treatment options soon. ... This will, of course, have a significant impact on the demand for testing," said Jordan.
Efforts by drugs and diagnostics maker Roche to develop its most advanced Alzheimer's drug failed last year, but its work on test kits and drug research continued.
The blood test detects traces of the toxic protein beta amyloid, which builds up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. The Leqembi drug has been shown to remove amyloid from the brain and Lilly's drug candidate is also based on that principle.
Roche's test, known as Elecsys Amyloid Plasma Panel, is not designed to provide a definitive answer on a patient's Alzheimer's status but to identify people who should advance to more expensive and burdensome confirmatory tests such as PET scans or spinal fluid analysis.
Roche hopes to sell the blood test, which will be analysed in standard labs using Roche machines, on the promise that it will help healthcare systems reduce the need for PET scans or spinal fluid tests.
Lilly has already developed a blood test that targets P-tau217, another protein that is an indicator of Alzheimer's, and is working with Quanterix Corp QTRX.O.
Quest Diagnostics Inc DGX.N and C2N Diagnostics have also launched Alzheimer's blood tests using different approaches.
Reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; editing by Jonathan Oatis
Actifs liés
Dernières actualités
Avertissement : Les entités de XM Group proposent à notre plateforme de trading en ligne un service d'exécution uniquement, autorisant une personne à consulter et/ou à utiliser le contenu disponible sur ou via le site internet, qui n'a pas pour but de modifier ou d'élargir cette situation. De tels accès et utilisation sont toujours soumis aux : (i) Conditions générales ; (ii) Avertissements sur les risques et (iii) Avertissement complet. Un tel contenu n'est par conséquent fourni que pour information générale. En particulier, sachez que les contenus de notre plateforme de trading en ligne ne sont ni une sollicitation ni une offre de participation à toute transaction sur les marchés financiers. Le trading sur les marchés financiers implique un niveau significatif de risques pour votre capital.
Tout le matériel publié dans notre Centre de trading en ligne est destiné à des fins de formation / d'information uniquement et ne contient pas – et ne doit pas être considéré comme contenant – des conseils et recommandations en matière de finance, de fiscalité des investissements ou de trading, ou un enregistrement de nos prix de trading ou une offre, une sollicitation, une transaction à propos de tout instrument financier ou bien des promotions financières non sollicitées à votre égard.
Tout contenu tiers, de même que le contenu préparé par XM, tels que les opinions, actualités, études, analyses, prix, autres informations ou liens vers des sites tiers contenus sur ce site internet sont fournis "tels quels", comme commentaires généraux sur le marché et ne constituent pas des conseils en investissement. Dans la mesure où tout contenu est considéré comme de la recherche en investissement, vous devez noter et accepter que le contenu n'a pas été conçu ni préparé conformément aux exigences légales visant à promouvoir l'indépendance de la recherche en investissement et, en tant que tel, il serait considéré comme une communication marketing selon les lois et réglementations applicables. Veuillez vous assurer que vous avez lu et compris notre Avis sur la recherche en investissement non indépendante et notre avertissement sur les risques concernant les informations susdites, qui peuvent consultés ici.
