How Alzheimer's patients are faring after trial blowup

The failure of closely watched Alzheimer’s trials late last month was a blow to Biogen and its partner Eisai. But it’s been downright devastating for some patients who had pinner their hopes on the possibility that the experimental drug aducanumab might allay some symptoms of their neurodegenerative disease.

Biogen was legally obligated to publicly announce that the trials would be halted. So participants went to bed one night thinking their drug might be working — and woke up to news to the contrary. It felt “like the rug was pulled out from under us,” one patient told STAT's Andrew Joseph. “I had this overwhelming sense of dread, almost like a hopelessness,” said another.