Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Alzheimer's Drug Results Send Stocks Soaring, But Experts Temper Expectations After String Of Failures Against Disease
The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Call Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug Study Positive
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug showed positive results and raised hopes anew that pharmaceutical companies were moving closer to a medicine that could finally disrupt the disease’s memory-robbing course, though a string of failures shadow the efforts. Alzheimer’s has proved an especially tough drug target. Approved therapies only relieve symptoms temporarily, and one experimental treatment after another promising to stymie the neurodegeneration has ultimately failed to work. Some pharmaceutical companies, after costly failures, pulled out. (Hernandez and Loftus, 7/6)
Stat: 4 Burning Questions After Biogen's $12 Billion Alzheimer's Surprise
Here’s what we know: In a complex study, a single subgroup of patients saw significant improvements in both cognition and the buildup of the toxic brain plaques thought to contribute to Alzheimer’s. The trial failed its primary endpoint, but that subgroup result marks a win on a secondary goal, according to Biogen and Eisai. What we don’t know — and won’t for a matter of months — is how many patients were in that group, how big the effects were, and whether the likes of the Food and Drug Administration will take the data seriously. That last point is particularly key. (Garde, 7/6)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Miami Herald: Novartis, Sandoz Recall 470,000 Packs Of Prescription Drugs
A child showed that some drug blister packs weren't "child resistant" as they should have been, so drugmakers Sandoz and Novartis recalled 470,000 of them. The exact description of the problem, as stated in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall notice: "The prescription drug packaging is not child resistant as required by the Poison Prevention Packaging Act, posing a poisoning risk if swallowed by children." (Neal, 7/8)
