Former New York Times reporter and communications director Phillip S Gutis was one of the patients left crestfallen when Biogen pulled the plug on its Alzheimer's drug trial this week.
Gutis, 57, was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative brain disease in 2016, placing him in the slim category of the four percent diagnosed before the age of 65.
Writing a heart-wrenching op-ed for the Times on Friday, Gutis said he 'knew' that the trial's odds of success were remote. 'But it gave me hope,' he said.
On learning the news of the trial's failure, he said: 'I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.'
Former New York Times reporter Phillip S Gutis, 57, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2016, placing him in the slim category of the four percent diagnosed before the age of 65
Gutis, who had a distinguished career in journalism before senior positions at the ACLU and the National Resources Defense Council, explains that it was through a Biogen memory loss trial that he was diagnosed.
He'd been forgetting things, and Biogen was looking for people to take memory tests. Their screening, and brain scans, revealed Alzheimer's.
Straight away, he learned Biogen had a clinical trial to testing a drug called aducanumab that they hoped would slow Alzheimer's progression by targeting beta-amyloid - proteins that destroy connections between nerve cells.
The trial was one of many, with various pharmaceutical companies racing to find a treatment or cure for the increasingly common disease.
Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca Plc, Roche AG, Pfizer Inc, Merck and Co Inc, and Johnson and Johnson all had drugs in the pipeline.
But one by one, they all dropped off, largely due to safety concerns.
Biogen's drug, which Gutis says was administered via regular infusions, was the last one going.
On Thursday, the firm, along with Japanese collaborator Eisai, announced the trial was ending because the drug showed little-to-no benefit compared to a placebo.
The announcement dealt a final blow to the theory that Alzheimer's researchers and drug makers have pegged their hopes on for a decade: that amyloid plaques are the target to beat.
Despite all others failing, Biogen had published a paper in 2016 that suggested promising results.
Once theirs, too, flopped it was a sign to the field that we are still completely in the dark about what causes and exacerbates Alzheimer's.
Gutis, who joined the trial straight after his diagnosis, writes in his op-ed that he didn't see much, if any, progress, but the trial gave him a sense of purpose.
What's more, he says, he felt his participation was making a difference.
'Why put myself through all that when I knew in my heart that the drug wasn't going to stop my Alzheimer's progression? I truly believed that I was a small piece in the search to find a cure,' he said.
Over the years, Gutis says, his cognition was slowly slipping away.
He believes his memories of his recently-deceased dog are all from photographs, and he has been forced to retire and sign up for disability checks, struggling to keep up with basic tasks.
Vowing to keep fighting for more trials, more research, and more funding, he says: 'We cannot give up.'
Link hienalouca.comhttps://hienalouca.com/2019/03/23/it-gave-me-hope-alzheimers-sufferer-57-reveals-heartbreak-after-failure-of-clinical-triale/
Main photo article Former New York Times reporter and communications director Phillip S Gutis was one of the patients left crestfallen when Biogen pulled the plug on its Alzheimer’s drug trial this week.
Gutis, 57, was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative brain disease in 2016, placing him in the slim c...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/22/19/11338174-6840457-image-a-8_1553284455124.jpg
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