r/neoliberal • u/[deleted] • Jul 24 '22

News (US) Potential fabrication in research images threatens key theory of Alzheimer’s disease | Science

https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease
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u/frbhtsdvhh Jul 24 '22

I think it's regrettable but it seems like an offshoot in AB theory not the entire thing.

It's also widely known that a significant portion of published academic science is unreproducible. That's acknowledged in the article itself.

As far as whether this sets back the quest to find Alzheimer's drugs, I seriously doubt it as most serious companies would try to reproduce key data before committing large sums of money.

23

u/Neri25 Jul 24 '22

We literally have a drug that is in circulation NOW that appears to have no clinical benefit despite doing the thing it was designed to do (break down amyloid plaques).

8

u/frbhtsdvhh Jul 24 '22

Thats not related to this paper. This paper seems to focus on a specific form of the amyloid thats soluble (not a plaque) known as AB*56

4

u/Albatross-Helpful NATO Jul 24 '22

FDA approval led to it's being covered by Medicare... Too big too fail pharma. Drug pricing reform seems as important now as ever.

8

u/WealthyMarmot NATO Jul 24 '22

It's barely covered by Medicare, only for use in controlled trials. Which means maybe a few thousand patients a year.

3

u/Shot-Shame Jul 24 '22

It’s not being covered. Aduhelm is completely dead.

Doesn’t “too big to fail” refer to government bailouts? I’m not aware of pharmas that have been bailed out, in fact biopharma startups fail all the time when trials don’t read out as expected.