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Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2020.

ABSTRACT: Introduction:Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a growing public health concern affecting millions of patients worldwide and costing billions of dollars annually. We review the pipeline of drugs and biologics in clinical trials for the treatment of AD. We use the Common Alzheimer's and Related Dementias Research Ontology (CADRO) to classify treatment targets and mechanisms of action. We review our annual pipeline reports for the past 5 years to provide longitudinal insight into clinical trials and drug development for AD. Methods:We reviewed ClinicalTrials.gov as of February 27, 2020, and identified all trials of pharmacologic agents currently being developed for treatment of AD as represented on this widely used U.S. Food and Drug Administration registry. Results:There are 121 agents in clinical trials for the treatment of AD. Twenty-nine agents are in 36 Phase 3 trials, 65 agents are in 73 Phase 2 trials, and 27 agents are in 27 Phase 1 trials. Twelve agents in trials target cognitive enhancement and 12 are intended to treat neuropsychiatric and behavioral symptoms. There are 97 agents in disease modification trials. Compared to the 2019 pipeline, there is an increase in the number of disease-modifying agents targeting pathways other than amyloid or tau. Discussion:The 2020 pipeline has innovations in clinical trials and treatment targets that provide hope for greater success in AD drug development programs. Review of clinical trials over the past 5 years show that there is progressive emphasis on non-amyloid targets, including candidate treatments for inflammation, synapse and neuronal protection, vascular factors, neurogenesis, and epigenetic interventions. There has been a marked growth in repurposed agents in the pipeline.

SUBMITTER: Cummings J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7364858 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2020.

Cummings Jeffrey J Lee Garam G Ritter Aaron A Sabbagh Marwan M Zhong Kate K

Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.) 20200716 1

<h4>Introduction</h4>Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a growing public health concern affecting millions of patients worldwide and costing billions of dollars annually. We review the pipeline of drugs and biologics in clinical trials for the treatment of AD. We use the Common Alzheimer's and Related Dementias Research Ontology (CADRO) to classify treatment targets and mechanisms of action. We review our annual pipeline reports for the past 5 years to provide longitudinal insight into clinical trials ...[more]

PMID: 32695874

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Project description:IntroductionAlzheimer's disease (AD) represents a global health crisis. Treatments are needed to prevent, delay the onset, slow the progression, improve cognition, and reduce behavioral disturbances of AD. We review the current clinical trials and drugs in development for the treatment of AD.MethodsWe searched the governmental website clinicaltrials.gov where are all clinical trials conducted in the United States must be registered. We used artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) approaches to ensure comprehensive detection and characterization of trials and drugs in development. We use the Common Alzheimer's Disease Research Ontology (CADRO) to classify drug targets and mechanisms of action of drugs in the pipeline.ResultsAs of January 25, 2022 (index date for this study) there were 143 agents in 172 clinical trials for AD. The pipeline included 31 agents in 47 trials in Phase 3, 82 agents in 94 trials in Phase 2, and 30 agents in 31 trials in Phase 1. Disease-modifying therapies represent 83.2% of the total number of agents in trials; symptomatic cognitive enhancing treatments represent 9.8% of agents in trials; and drugs for the treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms comprise 6.9%. There is a diverse array of drug targets represented by agents in trials including nearly all CADRO categories. Thirty-seven percent of the candidate agents in the pipeline are repurposed drugs approved for other indications. A total of 50,575 participants are needed to fulfill recruitment requirements for all currently active clinical trials.DiscussionThe AD drug development pipeline has agents representing a substantial array of treatment mechanisms and targets. Advances in drug design, outcome measures, use of biomarkers, and trial conduct promise to accelerate the delivery of new and better treatments for patients with AD.HighlightsThere are 143 drugs in the current Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug development pipeline.Disease-modifying therapies represent 83.2% of the candidate treatments.Current trials require 50,575 participants who will donate 3,878,843 participant-weeks to clinical trials.The biopharmaceutical industry sponsors 50% of all clinical trials including 68% of Phase 3 trials.Sixty-three percent of Phase 3 trials and 46% of Phase 2 trials include non-North American clinical trial site locations indicating the global ecosystem required for AD drug development.

Project description:BackgroundAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease leading to dementia. The field has made significant progress over the last 15 years. AD diagnosis has shifted from syndromal, based on signs and symptoms, to a biomarker construct based on the pathological hallmarks of the disease: amyloid β deposition, pathologic tau, and neurodegeneration. Numerous genetic risk factors for sporadic AD have been identified, providing further insight into the molecular underpinnings of the disease. For the last two decades, however, drug development for AD has been proven to be particularly challenging. Here, we provide a unique overview of the drug development landscape for AD. By comparing preclinical and clinical drug development pipelines, we aim to describe trends and differences regarding target classes and therapeutic modalities in preclinical and clinical development.MethodsWe analyzed proprietary and public databases and company websites for drugs in preclinical development for AD by the pharmaceutical industry and major clinical trial registries for drugs in clinical development for AD. Drugs were categorized by target class and treatment modality.ResultsWe found a higher proportion of preclinical interventions targeting molecular pathways associated with sporadic AD genetic risk variants, compared to clinical stage interventions. These include apolipoprotein E (ApoE) and lipids, lysosomal/endosomal targets, and proteostasis. Further, we observed a trend suggesting that more traditional therapeutic modalities are developed for these novel targets, while more novel treatment modalities such as gene therapies and enzyme treatments are in development for more traditional targets such as amyloid β and tau. Interestingly, the percentage of amyloid β targeting therapies in preclinical development (19.2%) is even higher than the percentage in clinical development (10.7%), indicating that diversification away from interventions targeting amyloid-beta has not materialized. Inflammation is the second most popular target class in both preclinical and clinical development.ConclusionsOur observations show that the AD drug development pipeline is diversifying in terms of targets and treatment modalities, while amyloid-targeting therapies remain a prominent avenue of development as well. To further advance AD drug development, novel companion diagnostics are needed that are directed at disease mechanisms related to genetic risk factors of AD, both for patient stratification and assessment of therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials.

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Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2020.

Publications

Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2020.

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