{"id":51226,"date":"2021-11-04T17:53:46","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T16:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=51226"},"modified":"2023-03-27T19:49:55","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T18:49:55","slug":"nothing-is-right-about-the-approval-of-aducanumab-and-nothings-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/11\/04\/nothing-is-right-about-the-approval-of-aducanumab-and-nothings-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing is right about the approval of aducanumab\u2014and nothing\u2019s new"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In June 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aducanumab, a monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, even though the data remain \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2021\/05\/30\/if-the-fda-approves-biogens-alzheimers-treatment-i-wont-prescribe-it\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">incomplete and contradictory,\u201d as one commentator put it<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although one member of the FDA\u2019s independent advisory committee called the approval \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2021\/06\/08\/fda-expert-panel-resigns-alzheimers-approval\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a dangerous precedent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d sadly, the approval of aducanumab doesn\u2019t establish a \u201cprecedent.\u201d\u00a0 A similar, less public process of drug approval, to which I was a central witness, unfolded 10 years ago in 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, a few words about aducanumab. The FDA approved it based on a \u201csurrogate\u201d marker: a measurement that may (or may not) predict an outcome of interest, but which provides no evidence of clinical benefit. The surrogate marker was the reduction, during treatment with aducanumab, of plaques of the protein \u201camyloid\u201d in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer&#8217;s disease. The FDA claimed in its official press release that this reduction is \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/drugs\/news-events-human-drugs\/fdas-decision-approve-new-treatment-alzheimers-disease\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reasonably likely to predict a clinical benefit.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d However, while amyloid plaques are generally assumed to cause cognitive decline, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-018-05719-4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">there is uncertainty<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as to whether reducing amyloid plaques in the brain <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-018-05719-4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">protects patients from cognitive decline<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Previous trials of drugs which reduce amyloid plaques in the brain have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medpagetoday.com\/neurology\/alzheimersdisease\/92992\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shown no clinical benefit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Aducanumab is associated with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/blog\/a-new-alzheimers-drug-has-been-approved-but-should-you-take-it-202106082483\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">potentially harmful side effects<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Notwithstanding all this, the FDA granted \u201caccelerated approval\u201d for Aducanumab. Biogen now has to do a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2021\/06\/08\/biogen-fda-at-odds-over-timing-of-crucial-confirmatory-trial-of-alzheimers-drug\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">post approval trial<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to confirm any clinical benefit, which could take years.\u00a0 This means profits will be reaped before Biogen is called upon to show evidence that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/healthcare-pharmaceuticals\/us-fda-set-rule-controversial-biogen-alzheimers-drug-2021-06-07\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aducanumab has a positive effect on cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer&#8217;s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In licensing aducanumab, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2021\/05\/30\/if-the-fda-approves-biogens-alzheimers-treatment-i-wont-prescribe-it\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the FDA ignored the advice of its own independent advisory committee<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To date, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/06\/11\/1005567149\/3-experts-have-resigned-from-an-fda-committee-over-alzheimers-drug-approval\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">three of the committee members have resigned in protest<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But as controversial as all this is, it doesn\u2019t set a \u201cprecedent.\u201d\u00a0 One was established over 10 years ago, with the approval of a drug aimed at treatment for thalassemia, a common blood disorder affecting hundreds of thousands of children in the world\u2019s poorest countries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1989, I began clinical trials of an experimental drug, deferiprone, to treat children with thalassemia. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/news\/canada\/barry-honey-sherman-murders\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My publicly funded trials<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> were later supplemented by funding from Apotex, a pharmaceutical company, whose CEO was Barry Sherman. Two years later, while continuing the trials, I recognized problems with the drug\u2019s safety.\u00a0 Sherman threatened me with legal action should I inform patients or publish my concerns, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caut.ca\/latest\/publications\/books\/the-olivieri-report\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prematurely and abruptly terminated both clinical trials<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, thereby avoiding generation of further data potentially adverse to his interests. I nonetheless proceeded to inform my patients and publish my concerns. This 25 year saga became arguably Canada\u2019s most publicized\u2014and certainly its most enduring\u2014<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/davidhealy.org\/repetition-compulsion-to-the-death-or-beyond\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">biomedical research scandal<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It even went on to form the basis of a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/opinion\/contributors\/2020\/12\/22\/nancy-olivieri-how-john-le-carr-changed-my-life.html?rf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Le Carr\u00e9 thriller<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over years, those threats of legal action from Sherman ultimately led to lawsuits. In 2009, he applied for approval of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/article\/letter-to-fda-opposing-approval-of-deferiprone\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">deferiprone from the FDA<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In his application Sherman urged the FDA, as he had to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/inthepatientsinterest.org\/the-files\/historical-files\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">European Medicines Agency 10 years before<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to ignore my concerns about the drug\u2019s safety, because according to Sherman, not only had I allegedly falsified trial data, but I\u2019d committed thousands of \u201cprotocol violations\u201d in the conduct of the trial.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FDA commissioned its Department of Scientific Investigation to conduct an inspection of my original trials. Over a week, the FDA inspector conducted a painstaking inspection of all my clinical data, confirmed concerns about the safety of deferiprone that I\u2019d been struggling to raise for years and showed that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/article\/letter-to-fda-opposing-approval-of-deferiprone\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sherman\u2019s allegations were unfounded<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. After examining all the data, the inspector reported that with respect to my trials\u2019 primary (non-surrogate) endpoint of effectiveness, liver iron concentration, Sherman had submitted data to the FDA that had <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/migration\/1973.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">excluded 45% of subjects<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most immediate outcome of this conclusion was that the FDA rejected Sherman\u2019s application. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/23966105\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FDA also informed Sherman that<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, given that my trials had been terminated prematurely, there existed no adequate studies of effectiveness for deferiprone.<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/article\/letter-to-fda-opposing-approval-of-deferiprone\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FDA therefore demanded at least one additional prospective<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, randomized, controlled clinical study to verify the effectiveness of deferiprone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sherman demanded that the FDA approve the drug based on selected data from older studies which, as in the case of aducanumab, had used a surrogate marker of \u201ceffectiveness.\u201d\u00a0 Ignoring its own written findings<\/span><b>,<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/public-citizen-urges-the-fda-to-reject-approval-of-an-inadequately-tested-experimental-drug-for-iron-overload-2\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the FDA issued \u201caccelerated approval\u201d for deferiprone<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/23966105\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">albeit as \u201clast resort\u201d therapy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.)\u00a0 Asked whether the FDA had ever issued approval based on data of such poor quality, an FDA official responded as follows: \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cancerletter.com\/articles\/20110930\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not that I am aware of.\u00a0 I want to make sure this doesn\u2019t establish a precedent.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite this chapter in the FDA\u2019s history, when I discuss the approval of aducanumab with colleagues or patients, I often hear: \u201cBut it must be safe and effective\u00a0 because the FDA approved it.\u201d\u00a0 This is troubling to anyone who has borne witness to what an FDA approval means, and what it doesn\u2019t mean.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some readers might be surprised that the FDA is paid by Pharma\u2014that the very industry the FDA has a duty to regulate supplies <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/about-fda\/fda-basics\/fact-sheet-fda-glance\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">65% of its budget used for the drug approval process<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Or that pharma employees, \u201cconsultants,\u201d and \u201cindependent patient voices\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pogo.org\/investigation\/2016\/12\/in-fda-meetings-voice-of-patient-often-funded-by-drug-companies\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">press hard and successfully for drug approvals<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stories of aducanumab and deferiprone are not the only ones leading many sensible people to an inevitable question: what function does the FDA now serve?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More questions are being asked: in September 2021, US Congress issued its first public request to the FDA for data and documents related to the approval process of aducanumab.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, more than ever, we need regulatory agencies that don\u2019t simply conjure up profit-generating hope, but approve products as safe and effective, because they <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">safe and effective.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Nancy Olivieri,<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a physician and a professor of pediatrics, medicine and public health sciences at the University of Toronto. Twitter: @DrNancyOlivieri<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In June 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aducanumab, a monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, even though the data remain \u201cincomplete and contradictory,\u201d as [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/11\/04\/nothing-is-right-about-the-approval-of-aducanumab-and-nothings-new\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":40027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3128,1357],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-us-health-care"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nothing is right about the approval of aducanumab\u2014and nothing\u2019s new - 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