Study Suggests Nonamyloid Alzheimer’s Drug Has Clear Benefit

Axon Neuroscience’s investigational anti-tau antibody treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, AADvac1, has posted positive phase 2b results, reducing cognitive slowing by up to 30 percent and neurodegeneration by 62 percent compared to placebo in patients with biomarker-confirmed disease.

Norbert Zilka, chief science officer of Axon Neuroscience, presented the findings from the company’s ADAMANT trial at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference this week and said AADvac1 would have significant advantages over monoclonal anti-amyloid infusion therapy.

“This can be given subcutaneously at home by the patient’s caregiver. It should also be much more affordable because the manufacturing costs are lower. We also believe it could be used for prevention in at-risk populations, as well as therapeutically,” he said.

Unlike Biogen’s anti-amyloid antibody Aduhelm (aducanumab), AADvac1 targets tau, the second pathologic protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Tau correlates much more strongly with cognitive decline than does amyloid, and some researchers hypothesize that halting tau pathology might slow or prevent cognitive decline.