Amgen isn’t abandoning amyloid when it comes to Alzheimer’s

Amgen, alongside partner Novartis, is the latest drug company to watch a once-promising treatment for Alzheimer’s disease fail before reaching the finish line. That drug, like so many before it, was meant to stop the accumulation of a brain plaque called beta-amyloid, long thought to play a role in Alzheimer’s.

But that doesn’t mean Amgen is walking away from the so-called amyloid hypothesis, said Dr. David Reese, the company’s executive vice president of R&D. There’s indisputable evidence that amyloid plays a role in Alzheimer’s, Reese said. The problem with all those failed drugs might be that they arrived too late to interrupt the plaque’s effects on the brain.

“When I hear people say amyloid has nothing to do with the disease, I don’t necessarily buy that,” Reese said. “It may be that you need to intervene very, very early to prevent that cascade. And I think those are the sorts of questions that we in the field need to sort out.”

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