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The pathology of Alzheimer disease (AD) includes deposition of β-amyloid peptide; a proposed therapeutic strategy is to administer monoclonal antibodies directed against this peptide. Researchers now report findings from industry-sponsored phase 3 trials of two such antibodies — bapineuzumab and solanezumab — that are directed against two different regions of β-amyloid.
In these trials, about 4500 patients with mild-to-moderate AD (2052 in the solanezumab studies and 2452 in the bapineuzumab studies) were randomized to the active drug or placebo. About half of patients were carriers of the apolipoprotein E e4 allele (a risk factor for late-onset AD). Compared with placebo, neither of the two drugs was associated with statistically significan…