November in the US is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, thanks to a 1983 decision by US President Ronald Reagan.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia and the sixth leading cause of death in the US. Although there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, there are treatments that slow its progression. Many companies and organisations are continuing to research finding a cure.
Alzheimer’s Disease
An analysis of the current clinical trial space for Alzheimer’s disease can be completed in the Clinical Trials Database and the Feasibility Planner of GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center. In this article, a small number of Phase 0, Phase I/II, Phase II/III, and Phase III/IV trials were combined with Phase I, Phase II, Phase III, and Phase IV trials, respectively.
Looking at all Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials in the database by phase, the largest proportion (42.3%) are currently in Phase I, followed by Phase II (33.9%), Phase III (14.8%), and Phase IV (8.9%) (Figure 1). The majority of clinical trials being in early phases shows that there is still much research to be completed in this space.
GlobalData’s Feasibility Planner can help research in this space by examining failed clinical trials and noting the reasons for their failure so future trials can eliminate those same pitfalls. The top five reasons for Alzheimer’s disease trial termination were lack of efficacy (50%), low accrual rate (21.1%), adverse events (14.4%), product discontinuation (8.9%), and protocol deviation (2.2%) (Figure 2).
