Otsuka ended development of AVP-786 after the experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment failed a late-stage study earlier this year.
The company made the decision to terminate the program “after a detailed analysis of results from the completed trial,” according to a press release on Wednesday.
Researchers had been studying the drug in agitation associated with dementia due to Alzheimer’s. But in February, Otsuka announced that AVP-786 did not top placebo after 12 weeks on an assessment of agitated behaviors called the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory total score.
Otsuka and Lundbeck had been trying to bring a second Alzheimer’s agitation drug to market after winning a landmark approval a year ago for Rexulti. It’s believed that the condition affects about half of all Alzheimer’s patients, according to the National Institutes of Health.