Roche Halts Alzheimer's Drug Study On Stagnant Safety Profile

(RTTNews) - Roche Holding AG (RHHBY.PK) on Friday said it was halting a late-stage trial of its investigational drug gantenerumab to treat patients with early Alzheimer's disease as its overall safety profile was similar to that of a Phase 1 study. Roche shares were down about 4 percent in Switzerland.

Roche is developing gantenerumab in partnership with German biotechnology company MorphoSys. Despite the decision to halt the late-stage trial, Roche said the drug continues to be evaluated in the phase III study in a later stage of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease and accounts for most cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is short term memory loss, but as the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, easily getting lost, mood swings and behavioral issues. Alzheimer's is estimated to afflict 44 million people worldwide and this figure is set to triple by 2050.

Gantenerumab is an investigational, fully human, monoclonal antibody designed to decrease levels of beta amyloid, a protein that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and is hypothesized to play a central role in disease development and progression.

The drug's disappointing results reflect the challenges pharmaceutical companies face in developing a potent drug to tackle the disease that is afflicting the western world and some developing countries too.

Roche said it would continue striving to develop therapies to treat Alzheimer's disease. The company has two investigational drugs for the disease in phase II development (crenezumab, an anti-amyloid antibody, and RG1577, a monoamine oxidase-B inhibitor).

Roche also said a late-stage trial of its breast cancer drug Kadcyla did not provide superior results compared with an existing therapy.

In Switzerland, Roche stock slid 10.30 euros or 3.66% at 271.00 euros on a volume of 5.6 million shares.