{"id":111315,"date":"2025-10-31T21:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/111315\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T21:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:33:09","slug":"new-oral-alzheimers-pill-isnt-that-great-according-to-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/111315\/","title":{"rendered":"New Oral Alzheimer’s Pill Isn’t That Great, According to Doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"

THERE’S BEEN A wave of new therapies for Alzheimer\u2019s disease<\/a> released over the last few years. But nothing would be as revolutionary as simply taking a pill to slow down cognitive decline. Better yet, the ideal medication would be a pill that could protect people with a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s.<\/p>\n

That’s why it was such big news earlier this week when scientists reported promising trial results of a pill named valiltramiprosate or ALZ-801. Published in the journal Drugs<\/a>, scientists found that when people with the apolipoprotein E \u03b54 (APOE \u03b54) allele\u2014the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease\u2014took the pill, it slowed down decaying of the brain area involved in memory and learning. <\/p>\n

The pill is being publicly hailed online as the next big thing in Alzheimer\u2019s disease care. But when we spoke to neurologists who specialize in Alzheimer’s treatment, they surprisingly didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. Here’s why. <\/p>\n

What exactly did the study find?<\/p>\n

The phase 3 clinical trial recruited 325 people between 50 to 80 years old with early Alzheimer\u2019s disease with symptoms ranging from mild cognitive impairment to mild dementia. A main focus was seeing whether valiltramiprosate helped people most at risk for Alzheimer’s, ones with the APOE \u03b54 gene. Each person was randomly assigned to the pill or a placebo for 78 weeks.<\/p>\n

Valiltramiprosate is designed as an anti-amyloid medication taken orally twice a day. It is intended to remove beta-amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, which should theoretically slow cognitive decline.<\/p>\n

The medication showed “significant positive effects” as cognitive decline slowed by 52 percent. According to the study, that would put it on par with FDA-approved Alzheimer\u2019s medications like lecanemab and donabemab. <\/p>\n

People who received the pill also showed 18 percent less shrinkage in the memory<\/a> center of the brain known as the hippocampus.<\/p>\n

The most common side effects were tolerable. The worst reported events involved some nausea, vomiting, and a lowered appetite. There was also no risk of brain swelling or bleeding\u2014a risk that is significantly higher for people with the APOE \u03b54 gene taking lecanemab<\/a> and donabemab<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOral valiltramiprosate may provide a favorable benefit\u201d for people with mild cognitive impairment, the researchers wrote in the conclusion. Sounds promising, right?<\/p>\n

There is an important backstory here.<\/p>\n

Rewind back to April and you’ll see some really big differences in the trial results<\/a> the researchers reported then and now. Namely, valiltramiprosate didn’t work any better than those who took a placebo. <\/p>\n

So what’s changed in the few months since the report? Did scientists tweak the formula to make it more effective? <\/p>\n

We had neurologists take a close look at the results from then and now. Spoiler: they weren’t too impressed. <\/p>\n

The methodology appears the same. It’s still 325 people with the APOE \u03b54 gene with early Alzheimer’s randomly assigned the pill or a placebo. The real difference is that months later, researchers crunched the numbers differently.<\/p>\n

This new study took those same findings and analyzed a group of patients within it, creating different results, explains Matthew S. Schrag, MD, PhD<\/a>, a vascular neurologist and an assistant professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. \u201cWe’ve been here before\u2014not just in the field, but with this particular drug,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has failed in previous clinical trials and has failed again pretty definitively in this clinical trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schrag says that the hype surrounding this medication \u201ccomes down to marketing,\u201d adding that the \u201cpromising signals in this trial are really quite weak.\u201d <\/p>\n

For example, the results claim the pill can slow down cognitive decline by 52 percent. However, the actual difference isn\u2019t as large as it seems. Schrag notes that describing things as \u201cpercent slowing\u201d can make some data seem more notable than it actually is. \u201cThese are relative differences that can be extremely small, and still give a high percentage,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Other neurologists aren\u2019t impressed, either.<\/p>\n

Clifford Segil, DO<\/a>, a neurologist at Providence Saint John\u2019s Health Center, also flagged the interpretation of the 52 percent cognitive decline. \u201cThe data used by the authors to show their medication did something good noted their medication had a \u2018nominally\u2019 significant positive effects,\u201d he says. Segil points out that \u201cnominally\u201d means \u201cin name only.\u201d While the researchers called out the 52 percent change, they also pointed out that it was nominal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen data presented as being nominal to result in significant positive effects in clinical practice,\u201d Segil says. <\/p>\n

Amit Sachdev, MD, MS<\/a>, medical director in the department of neurology at Michigan State University, is also concerned that the pill makes no attempts to remove amyloid plaques already present in the brain. \u201cDeposits already on the brain<\/a> likely disrupt function. So, if you do not remove them, then it is possible to experience some ongoing dysfunction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, he adds that another issue is the trial length. If a 78-week trial sounds like a long time, Sachdev says that’s because many forms of Alzheimer\u2019s disease move slowly. \u201cThis makes measuring disease activity very difficult, often requiring very long timelines,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is also unclear how different populations will experience the drug, both good and bad.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ultimately, neurologists like Schrag isn\u2019t wowed about the Alzheimer’s pill. \u201cI would equate this to trying to read tea leaves,\u201d he says. \u201cThey made a subgroup of a subgroup to try to demonstrate results.\u201d <\/p>\n

Schrag also says the data suggest there\u2019s nothing more to investigate about valiltramiprosate. \u201cSometimes you have to look at what the biology is telling you,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a fair number of negative results. The clinical trial was convincingly negative.\u201d <\/p>\n

Related Stories\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men\u2019s Health, Women\u2019s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master\u2019s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, MS is the associate health & fitness for Men’s Health and has previously written for CNN, Scientific American, Popular Science, and National Geographic before joining the brand. When she’s not working, she’s doing circus arts or working towards the perfect pull-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THERE’S BEEN A wave of new therapies for Alzheimer\u2019s disease released over the last few years. But nothing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8264,1596,9620,405,134,524,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-111315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alzheimer","9":"tag-brain","10":"tag-brain-health","11":"tag-genetics","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-medication","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}