Elan Shares Dip 25% After Alzheimer’s Drug Trial Data Disappoints

Washington (dbTechno) - Elan Corp, the biggest drugmaker in Ireland, saw shares plunge 26% in Dublin trading. This comes after their new Alzheimer’s treatment drug did not perform well in a trial.

The new Alzheimer’s treatment they were working on with Wyeth was known as bapineuzumab, and showed absolutely no benefit to helping the majority of patients with Alzheimer’s.

The new treatment was able to actually slow memory loss more effectively than other treatments on the market.

What went wrong though had to do with a gene carried by half of Alzheimer’s patients, known as ApoE4. The drug was not effective against anyone carrying that gene.

There were also side effects reported, which included brain swelling.

Their shares dropped 26% on Wednesday morning, the biggest drop since March 2005.

The research was presented at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago.