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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Pfizer has announced that it will halt efforts to find new treatments for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases [npr.org]. Meanwhile, Axovant Sciences will halt its studies of intepirdine [wikipedia.org] after it failed to show any improvement for dementia and Alzheimer's patients [statnews.com]. The company's stock price has declined around 90% in 3 months:

Pfizer has announced plans to end its research efforts to discover new drugs for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The pharmaceutical giant explained its decision, which will entail roughly 300 layoffs, as a move to better position itself "to bring new therapies to patients who need them."

"As a result of a recent comprehensive review, we have made the decision to end our neuroscience discovery and early development efforts and re-allocate [spending] to those areas where we have strong scientific leadership and that will allow us to provide the greatest impact for patients," Pfizer said in a statement emailed to NPR.

[...] Despite heavily funding research efforts into potential treatments in the past, Pfizer has faced high-profile disappointment in recent years, as Reuters notes [reuters.com]: "In 2012, Pfizer and partner Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) called off additional work on the drug bapineuzumab after it failed to help patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's in its second round of clinical trials."

Another potential treatment for neurodegenerative disorders — this one developed by Axovant, another pharmaceutical company — also found itself recently abandoned. The company dropped its experimental drug intepirdine after it failed to improve motor function [reuters.com] in patients with a certain form of dementia — just three months after it also failed to show positive effects [yahoo.com] in Alzheimer's patients.

Looks like GlaxoSmithKline got a good deal when they sold the rights to intepirdine to Axovant Sciences in 2014.

Also at Bloomberg [bloomberg.com].

Related: Can we Turn Back the Clock on Alzheimer's? [soylentnews.org]
Possible Cure for Alzheimer's to be Tested Within the Next Three Years [soylentnews.org]
Mefenamic Acid Might Cure Alzheimers - Generic Cost in US is Crazy [soylentnews.org]
New Alzheimer's Treatment Fully Restores Memory Function in Mice [soylentnews.org]
Power Outage in the Brain may be Source of Alzheimer's [soylentnews.org]
Another Failed Alzheimer's Disease Therapy [soylentnews.org]
The FDA Saved Taxpayers from Paying Billions for Ineffective Alzheimer's Therapy [soylentnews.org]
Alzheimer's Disease: A "Whole Body" Problem? [soylentnews.org]
Bill Gates Commits $100 Million to Alzheimer's Research [soylentnews.org]
Evidence That Alzheimer's Protein Spreads Like an Infection [soylentnews.org]

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