Azeliragon clocks up another flop in search for Alzheimer's disease treatment

Shares of vTv Therapeutics (Nasdaq: VTVT) plummeted 63.8% to $$1.18 in after-hours trading on Monday, after the company announced that results from Part A of its Phase III STEADFAST study of the investigational medication azeliragon in people with mild Alzheimer’s disease did not meet either co-primary efficacy endpoint.

Patients taking azeliragon compared with placebo did not improve in cognitive or functional outcomes as measured by the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale Sum of Boxes (CDR-sb, with the results adding to the litany of failures in the Alzheimer’s field.

Since 2002 multiple biotech and pharma companies have been hoping to obtain positive late-stage data in the Alzheimer's space. To date, 99% of the companies have failed to achieve any success in this area.