Looking Ahead for Development in Alzheimer Disease: Howard Fillit, MD

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“Seventy-five percent, I think it is now, of all drugs in clinical development are nonamyloid, nontau drugs. Multiple targets are being addressed now, which is great for the field because I think the way we're going to have to go is combination therapy, addressing all the multiple pathways that are involved in Alzheimer’s.”

Looking back on 2021, the Alzheimer disease (AD) field had its fair share of development, including the approval of aducanumab (Aduhelm; Biogen), the first new disease-modifying treatment for the disease in 17 years. More information on donanemab, an investigational agent from Eli Lilly, is highly anticipated, as the phase 2 data may suggest efficacy comparable to, or greater than, aducanumab, according to Howard Fillit, MD, founding executive director of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. 

Fillit sat down with NeurologyLive^® to discuss the state of the research efforts and drug development in AD, explaining the data readouts on his radar for 2022. Fillit anticipates data from other amyloid trials and antitau antibody trials headlining the diverse drug pipeline, and more importantly, he said, experts are excited about studies that go beyond amyloid and tau targets to explore novel targets that may be applied in combination therapy approaches. Additional trials exploring frontotemporal dementia and the various subtypes are on the docket for 2022, as well as data on levetiracetam, which has been reformulated as a low-dose drug for mild cognitive impairment.