Merck Will End Alzheimer's Trial as Alternative Approach Fails
- Drugmaker had been testing compound in early-stage patients
- No drugs have worked in attempts to slow disease’s progress
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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Merck & Co. will stop its final-stage test of an Alzheimer’s compound that was once seen as a promising alternative to other now-failed approaches.
The drug, verubecestat, was being tested in patients who showed only a glimmer of the symptoms that eventually rob them of memories and basic functions. It’s another setback in a long list of experimental treatments that have had little or no effect on the neurodegenerative disease.