Cassava Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA) has announced the final results of its Phase 2b study of sumifilam, its novel drug candidate in Alzheimer’s disease.
Cassava Sciences studying first new in-class drug binding compound
The National Institute of Health-funded study in which sumifilam was found to have significant results in improving a whole panel of validated biomarkers of disease in Alzheimer’s patients. This is a huge milestone considering that improving multiple biomarkers from different biological pathways is yet to be demonstrated in Alzheimer’s disease patients. The study results of sumifilam, the pioneering new class drug compound binding to Filamin, will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Jeffrey Cummings, the founding Director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Centre for Brain Health, stated that the filamin-binding molecule phenomenon is new in Alzheimer’s research and will offer significant progress in the area if the data can be replicated in more studies. Cummings stated that he was delighted to witness initial evidence of disease-modifying effects in Alzheimer’s disease through sumifilam. He further added that the data seems to represent a huge step required in the development of Alzheimer’s disease treatments.
Sumifilam showed directional improvement in Alzheimer’s patients
Also, Alzheimer’s disease patients treated with sumifilam demonstrated directional improvement when tested if they could remember new information compared to those in placebo. The enhanced cognition was correlated with the decline in P-tau181 biomarker, which was elevated when tangles in the brain. Most importantly, sumifilam reduced P-tau-181 levels in the brain by between 8% and 11% compared to placebo.
In the study, patients that received either 50 mg or 100 mg of sumifilam twice per day for four weeks showed significant improvements in biomarkers of disease neurodegeneration, neuroinflammation, and pathology compared to the placebo group. Those patients who received the sumifilam dose demonstrated directional, improvement in spatial working memory and episodic memory validated tests. According to the company, the study attained a 98% response rate, which is the percentage of participants that took sumifilam and showed biomarkers improvement.
