Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) shares rallied premarket as its experimental Alzheimer’s treatment, Donanemab, showed positive signs in a Phase 2 trial.
Donanemab demonstrated a significant slowing of decline in cognition and daily function in patients with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease compared to patients who received the placebo in results from Eli Lilly’s Phase 2 TRAILBLAZER-ALZ study.
Eli Lilly’s stock price is up 11.58% after the US opening bell at $185.68.
“Donanemab met the primary endpoint of change from baseline to 76 weeks in the Integrated Alzheimer's Disease Rating Scale (iADRS), slowing decline by 32 per cent relative to placebo, which was statistically significant,” Eli Lilly said.
There is currently no approved treatment for Alzheimer’s with dementia due to Alzheimer’s the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60% to 80% of the over 50 million cases worldwide. Companies are looking at targeting beta-amyloid, a protein that builds up in the brain and is linked to the disease.
By targeting N3pG beta-amyloid, using donanemab has been shown to rapidly result in high levels of amyloid plaque clearance, according to Eli Lilly.
“This unique mechanism and antibody for clearing plaques, discovered at Lilly, has the potential to provide high levels of durable amyloid plaque clearance after limited duration dosing,” said Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly's chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories.
“The positive results we have obtained today give us confidence in donanemab and support its rapid and deep plaque clearance for the potential treatment of Alzheimer's disease,” Skovronsky added.
