Thursday, November 3, 2016

FierceBiotech: Good Article On Phase Ib Merck Candidate For Alzheimer’s Disease


I offer this latest news, on a [mysteriously] rather groggy evening.

It is only late Phase I, but moderately encouraging.
Do go read it all -- but here's a bit:

. . .In the seven-day Phase Ib trial, details of which were first shared in 2013, Merck randomized patients to receive one of three daily doses of BACE1 inhibitor verubecestat or a placebo. After seven days, Merck looked at the concentrations of beta-amyloid 40 and other amino acids linked to the formation of amyloid plaques. In the cohort that took the highest dose, levels of beta-amyloid fell by as much as 90% over the 24 hours patients were monitored. The time weighted average reductions for the different doses over the period ranged from 57% to 84%.

Whether those declines translate into improvements in cognitive function is a question for a pair of much larger Phase III trials that are due to begin reporting data late next year. Merck is enrolling 1,500 patients with mild cognitive impairment in one study, and has already recruited 2,221 people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s to participate in the other. Those trials are using two different scales to measure the cognitive function of participants. . . .


Now you know. I guess I should be more excited for tomorrow, after over a century's waiting. [Just the truth, here -- and, check for an inanimate "Where's Waldo".] But really I am. . . not. I guess the wanting is more. . . than the having -- as is oft' true. G'night. . . .

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know this isn't the correct spot but:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rudy-giuliani-fbi-clinton-emails_us_581c9e3fe4b0e80b02c93d6b

Have we now gone way beyond Watergate?

Condor said...

Thanks Anon. -- good to read of you again. . . .

I will start with a confession: I've already cast my vote -- last week, Sunday, at a very crowded early polling place -- and have already started tuning out all the remaining Trump "noise factor". I also (like Nate Silver) remain pretty darn confident HRC will win, and I personally see Democrats getting 53 Senate seats in total.

That (in turn) will give Democrats the control to seat its own Supreme Court nominees. And there will be more than one, I think -- very shortly -- to be seated.

In all, then -- the entire Giuliani - Christie - Trump "evil mis-shapen bromance" will lead only to the removal of all three from any future eligibility for/in any elected GOP political contested office. Each of them has disgraced themselves.

They may rise again, in a Trump wing-nut / third party setting, but then they are meaningless. So I am not sure I give a hoot who talks to Rudy. FBI agents don't make final decisions to prosecute. That is the function of the US Attorney.

Even so, this one does bother me: it seems plain that at least SOME FBI agents intended to violate the Hatch Act -- but I personally believe we cannot count James Comey among those people. He just calls balls and strikes, and I think he mucked it up here -- but I think he did so without a political purpose. He thought he was being "transparent" to Congressional leaders.

We might call that approach naive (at best) -- but not unlawful.

If any current (lower-level) FBI agents are aiding Rudy, in his bag of dirty political tricks, then the Hatch Act ought to be invoked by the AUSAs, after the election -- and let justice take its course with them.

Finally, Jim Comey may have rightly surmised that HRC will certainly win regardless, so why not release this last bit, and prevent Trump from plausibly claiming the people's will was thwarted -- "had they only known, they might have voted him in. . ."? Ugh.

Far too long winded -- but I am pretty happy to let the ballot box solve these ills.

Come late Tuesday night, when (not if, at this point) Colorado votes blue for HRC. . . Mr. Trump's chances die. Right then and there. He cannot win without Colorado. And it is out of reach. There are a few states out east where the polls close earlier, and if Trump fails to carry ANY ONE of them, he is finished. Florida will be the earliest death-knell, should it go blue -- as its polls will close early in the evening. Same way with PA and NC. Without all of these, Trump is dead.

Great stuff -- that you brought us here!

Do keep it up!

Namaste, and good night. . .





Anonymous said...

Just seeing this. Thank you.