PREVENTION OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE IN CHINESE POPULATIONS: STATUS, CHALLENGES AND DIRECTIONS

Abstract

n January 2018, the investigators from Eli Lily’s EXPEDITION3 trial published their negative findings of a large phase 3 trial on the antibody Solanezumab (1). The lacking of statistically significant between-group difference on primary endpoint dampened enthusiasm again, and added the study to a long and growing list of failed trials (including EXPEDITION 1 and EXPEDITION2 from the same company) in the field of AD therapeutics. Without promising disease modifying agents, more and more clinicians and scientists in the field start to believe that prevention is better (and maybe easier) than treatment. In the West, scientists, lobbyists and advocacy groups are working hard in persuading the governments and funding agencies to invest more on efforts related to primary prevention of AD. A major study, the US POINTER will soon be initiated in 2018 in the U.S.