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Home › Research › Biomarkers

Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2019

Cummings J, Lee G, Ritter A, Sabbagh M, Zhong K.. Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.), 2019-07-09

This page is alzhub.org's plain-English summary of a published study, not the paper itself. It is generated from the record we hold for this study, sourced and linked below — check the original for the full text and methods.

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 45 out of 100. Biomarkers

Topic: Drug trials: efficacy and safety

Introduction Alzheimer's disease (AD) has few available treatments, and there is a high rate of failure in AD drug development programs. Study of the AD drug development pipeline can provide insight into the evolution of drug development and how best to optimize development practices. Methods We reviewed clinicaltrials.gov and identified all pharmacologic AD trials of all agents currently being developed for treatment of AD. Results There are 132 agents in clinical trials for the treatment of AD. Twenty-eight agents are in 42 phase 3 trials; 74 agents are in 83 phase 2 trials; and 30 agents are in 31 phase 1 trials. There is an increase in the number of agents in each phase compared with that in the 2018 pipeline. Nineteen agents in trials target cognitive enhancement, and 14 are intended to treat neuropsychiatric and behavioral symptoms. There are 96 agents in disease modification trials; of these, 38 (40%) have amyloid as the primary target or as one of several effects. Eighteen of the antiamyloid agents are small molecules, and 20 are monoclonal antibodies or biological therapies. Seven small molecules and ten biologics have tau as a primary or combination target (18%). Amyloid is the most common specific target in phase 3 and phase 2 disease modification trials. Novel biomarkers (e.g., neurofilament light), new outcomes (e.g., AD Composite Score [ADCOMS]), enrollment of earlier populations, and innovative trial designs (e.g., Bayesian adaptive designs) are new features in recent clinical trials. Discussion Drug development continues robustly at all phases despite setbacks in several programs in the recent past. Continuing unmet needs require a commitment to growing and accelerating the pipeline.

Key findings

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Study details

How this study scored 45/100
How this study's score is builtJournal tier 9 of 10; Journal's citation record left out, no data; Study design 0 of 12; Strength of evidence 1 of 5; Peer-review validation 10 of 10; How recent 2 of 5; Sample size 0 of 4; Effect reported 0 of 3; Studied in people 0 of 3; Randomised / blinded 0 of 2; Times cited left out, no data; Citations per year left out, no data; Impact for its field and year left out, no data; Cited by studies here left out, no data; Still being cited left out, no data; Senior author's track record left out, no data; Institution's track record left out, no data; Multi-centre collaboration left out, no data; Indexed in PubMed 2 of 2; Free to read 2 of 2. 26 of the 58 points it could be judged on, which is 45 of 100. Total 45 of 100.26 of the 58 points we could judge = 45 of 100

Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 26 of the 58 points we could judge it on, which is 45 out of 100.

ComponentPointsWhy
Journal tier 9 / 10 Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.))
Journal's citation record — / 4 No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score
Study design 0 / 12 Design recorded as “clinical trial”, which our rubric does not rank (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Strength of evidence 1 / 5 Rated “low” in our summary
Peer-review validation 10 / 10 Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent 2 / 5 2019 — within 10 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size 0 / 4 Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Effect reported 0 / 3 No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people 0 / 3 Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Randomised / blinded 0 / 2 No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Times cited — / 7 No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score
Citations per year — / 5 No citation count or no year — left out of this score
Impact for its field and year — / 6 No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score
Cited by studies here — / 6 Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score
Still being cited — / 4 No yearly citation counts — left out of this score
Senior author's track record — / 4 Senior author's record not available — left out of this score
Institution's track record — / 3 No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score
Multi-centre collaboration — / 3 Institutions not listed — left out of this score
Indexed in PubMed 2 / 2 Indexed in PubMed (PMID 31334330)
Free to read 2 / 2 Free to read
Points 26 / 58 Scored on 11 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 26 of the 58 points we could judge it on is 45 out of 100.
Total 45 / 100 —

What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →

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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

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APA 7th

Cummings, J., Lee, G., Ritter, A., Sabbagh, M., & Zhong, K. (2019). Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2019. Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trci.2019.05.008

Vancouver

Cummings J, Lee G, Ritter A, Sabbagh M, Zhong K. Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2019. Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.). 2019. doi:10.1016/j.trci.2019.05.008. PMID: 31334330.

BibTeX

@article{cummings2019-31334330,
  author  = {Cummings, J. and Lee, G. and Ritter, A. and Sabbagh, M. and Zhong, K.},
  title   = {{Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2019}},
  journal = {Alzheimer's \& dementia (New York, N. Y.)},
  year    = {2019},
  doi     = {10.1016/j.trci.2019.05.008},
  pmid    = {31334330},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trci.2019.05.008}
}

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