RHHBY Roche Holdings Ltd AG (QX)

By Colin Kellaher

Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) and Roche Holdings AG's (ROG.EB) Genentech unit Monday said a phase 2/3 study of their investigational therapies for Alzheimer's disease missed its primary endpoint in people with a rare, early-onset, inherited form of the disease.

The drug makers said the study, sponsored by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, didn't show a significant slowing of the rate of cognitive decline in people treated with Lilly's solanezumab and Roche's gantenerumab compared with placebo in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's, which accounts for less than 1% of all cases of the disease.

Genentech said it continues to study gantenerumab, a late-stage investigational medicine, in a pair of large global phase III studies in the broader population of people with Alzheimer's disease that isn't directly caused by gene mutations.

Eli Lilly said it won't pursue a regulatory submission for solanezumab in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease, but it said the study's outcome doesn't affect an ongoing clinical trial testing solanezumab in older individuals who have evidence of amyloid in their brains but don't show symptoms of memory impairment.

The companies said they are conducting further analyses of the study, including secondary endpoints and biomarkers, in collaboration with Washington University.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 10, 2020 06:30 ET (11:30 GMT)

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