Roche Stops Alzheimer Drug Trial; Shows Mixed Results in Breast Cancer Study

By Neil Maclucas

ZURICH--Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) on Friday said it was ending a late-stage study of a drug to treat Alzheimer's disease, while a separate study showed a breast-cancer treatment didn't yield superior results to an existing treatment.

Basel-based Roche said it was discontinuing a study of gantenerumab, a drug to treat patients with early Alzheimer's disease after it yielded a safety profile similar to those in an earlier study.

The company said it was "disappointed" with the results but that it would use the study data for future research.

Roche had been testing gantenerumab as a potential agent for delaying progression of early-stage Alzheimer's, a disease that affects about 44 million people worldwide.

Separately, Roche said a late-stage trial to evaluate the effectiveness of three of drugs on patients with HER2-positive breast cancer yielded mixed results. Roche said its Kadcyla drug used alone or in combination with its Perjeta treatment, and its Herceptin drug used with chemotherapy all helped patients live for a similar amount of time without the disease worsening.

However, the trials with Kadcyla weren't significantly better than Herceptin used in combination with chemotherapy.

Roche said it had hoped the study would improve the survival rate for advanced breast cancer without resorting to traditional chemotherapy.

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