The pharmaceutical giant Roche announced on Wednesday a collaboration with the American Eli Lilly for research on an early diagnosis test for Alzheimer’s disease. Called Elecsys Amyloid Plasma Panel, the Roche test in which the group will involve Eli Lilly is a blood test intended to help detect the disease at an early stage, Roche said in a press release.
Currently some 75% of people with the disease are living with symptoms without being diagnosed. They are detected on average only 2.8 years after the appearance of the first signs of the disease, underlines the Swiss laboratory. “Today, more than 55 million people live with dementia,” said Matt Sause, director of diagnostics activities at Roche, quoted in the press release. Projections suggest that figure could climb “to 140 million by 2050,” he adds.
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Setback in 2022
Last year, the pharmaceutical division of Roche had suffered a setback in its research for a treatment against Alzheimer’s disease, on which pharmaceutical companies have been struggling for many years, failing to find a drug to treat this disease.
But this setback coincided with positive results from a drug developed by the Japanese pharmaceutical group Eisai and the American Biogen, which for the first time offered hope for a treatment. These favorable results had amplified the disappointment around Roche’s trials.
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The American health authorities had granted the status of diagnostic breakthrough to this test of Roche in the course of research with which Eli Lilly will be associated. They had also approved two Roche tests targeting beta-amyloid and phospho-tau proteins, considered to be indicators of the disease.