Don't hold your breath for Biogen's Alzheimer's data

The year’s biggest news in Alzheimer’s disease won’t be featured at the year’s biggest Alzheimer’s disease conference.

Biogen, which was widely expected to present results from its failed aducanumab studies next month, said it needs more time to analyze the data. That’ll be a disappointment to the many researchers who hoped to get a deep dive into aducanumab at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, which starts July 14 in Los Angeles.

It also delays the next permutation of the never-ending debate over the amyloid hypothesis. We all know aducanumab failed to beat placebo at slowing cognitive decline, but the biological details could be instructive. If the drug failed to clear out those toxic plaques, one could argue that the problem was with aducanumab and not with the amyloid theory. But if Biogen’s drug did its job and still had no cognitive benefit, some scientists might be convinced to dump amyloid once and for all.

Read more.