DNLI - Sanofi and Denali Halt Clinical Trials of Alzheimer Drug
On Tuesday, Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) and Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI) announced they were halting clinical trials for one of Denali's drugs, DNL747. While the drug candidate proved to be safe at the dosage tested in the phase 1 trial, the results suggested that the molecule might not help people with Alzheimer's or ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) unless the dosage was increased. And such an increase might cause safety issues in humans.
Instead, the two companies are going forward with the "back-up compound," DNL788, as that molecule had superior results in animal testing. "[W]e have decided to pause clinical studies with DNL747 and focus our efforts on accelerating development of DNL788, which we believe has superior drug properties and a more rapid path toward proof-of-concept clinical studies in patients in multiple neurological indications," said Denali CEO Ryan Watts.
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