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Novo Defends Semaglutide Alzheimer’s Strategy After Phase 3 Miss

At CTAD, Novo cast the negative readout as guidance for next steps in a field weighing J&J’s tau setback against early signals from a small liraglutide trial.

Overview

  • Two large, two-year Phase 3 studies of oral semaglutide in nearly 3,800 people with early Alzheimer’s showed no statistically significant slowing of clinical decline versus placebo.
  • Novo reported improvements in certain Alzheimer’s-related biomarkers but said those changes did not translate into delayed disease progression.
  • Company executive Peter Johannsen defended the program at the CTAD meeting, noting consolidated data are online, initial results will be presented Wednesday, and full results are due in March.
  • Johnson & Johnson discontinued its mid-stage anti-tau antibody posdinemab after it failed to slow clinical decline, underscoring the challenge of converting biomarker shifts into patient benefit.
  • A separate Phase 2b study of liraglutide in 169 patients reported roughly half the rate of brain-volume loss and an 18% cognitive advantage over one year, findings published in Nature Medicine that investigators say require larger, longer trials.