Roche’s Parkinson’s drug misses main goal in mid-stage trial

Investing.com — Roche’s experimental Parkinson’s disease drug, prasinezumab, failed to meet its primary objective in a mid-stage trial.

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant announced on Thursday that the drug did not significantly delay the progression of motor symptoms in early-stage Parkinson’s patients. This is the second setback this week for potential treatments for the neurodegenerative condition.

Earlier this week, UCB, a Belgian peer, declared that a similar Parkinson’s drug candidate developed in collaboration with Novartis (SIX:NOVN) also fell short of key objectives in a clinical trial.

Despite the setback, Roche stated that prasinezumab demonstrated potential clinical efficacy. The drug also showed positive trends on several other trial goals and was well tolerated by patients. Roche plans to continue evaluating the data and will collaborate with health authorities to determine the next steps.

Levi Garraway, Roche’s Chief Medical (TASE:PMCN) Officer, expressed belief in the drug’s potential, stating, “We believe the consistent efficacy trends from the Phase IIb study of prasinezumab merit further exploration.”

The latest study, which involved an expanded patient group of 586, echoed the results of a previous Roche mid-stage trial that also yielded mixed results earlier this year.

Parkinson’s disease, which currently has no cure, affects nearly 1 million people in the U.S. and more than 10 million globally. Several companies are developing treatments that target a neuronal protein called alpha-synuclein, which is found in the brain and associated with the disease.

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