Additional coverage:
Info from Merck R&D presentation about MK-8931
MK-8931 data presented at 2012 AAIC conference
Links of interest regarding drug discovery against the BACE target
Merck announces phase 2/3 plans for MK-8931
- Key development for 2012: "we were able to show that one can lower CSF A beta levels in people by over 90%, without having untoward effects. And that was a new result. Really we had not known previously if you could lower CSF A beta by those sorts of levels, and not have something show up which was untoward."
- Moved into phase 2/3 program for Alzheimer's in November 2012: "The design of that trial is to begin by enrolling an initial cohort of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, and then after a set period of time to look for any safety issues that would preclude us from moving forward to Phase III. And absent any of those safety issues that would preclude us from moving into Phase III, to then move in a seamless manner into Phase III in the mild to moderate patient population...At the same time, such a move would kick off our plans to conduct the study in what’s called the prodromal patient population. And the prodromal population are basically patients with mild cognitive impairment for MCI that, as judged by biomarkers, have a higher propensity to progress to Alzheimer’s disease, to frank Alzheimer’s disease, in a shorter period of time."
- Announced deal with GE to "use their PET ligand to identify patients with MCI that fall into this prodromal category, and we will use their PET ligand and take advantage of the infrastructure that they’re helping to establish to allow us to enroll a prodromal Phase III study with our BACE inhibitor."
- We expect the interim analysis of safety cohort to occur by the end of 2013