Priyanka Tiwari
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Suspense crime, Digital Desk : Shanghai Green Valley Pharmaceuticals has officially halted the commercial production and sales of its controversial Alzheimer's drug, Oligomannate (GV-971), marking the end of the line for a medication that was plagued by scientific doubt since its inception.
The company attributed the decision to "extremely low market demand" since the drug's launch. This commercial failure stems from widespread skepticism within the medical community, both in China and internationally, regarding the drug's effectiveness and the flimsy data upon which it was approved.
Oligomannate received a high-profile, conditional approval from China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in 2019. The approval was controversially based on a small, short-term domestic trial. The NMPA mandated a larger, international clinical trial to confirm the drug's benefits, but that global trial was quietly stopped in 2021, further fueling doubts about its efficacy.
Many scientists and neurologists outside of China criticized the rapid approval, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the drug provided any meaningful benefit to patients with the neurodegenerative disease.
The drug's novel approach, which aimed to treat Alzheimer's by targeting the gut microbiome to reduce neuroinflammation in the brain, was met with intrigue but also significant criticism for lacking robust, peer-reviewed evidence to support its claims.
With Oligomannate now off the market, Shanghai Green Valley has stated it will pivot its focus to the early diagnosis and prevention of Alzheimer's. The episode serves as a cautionary tale in the pharmaceutical world about the risks of fast-tracking drugs for complex diseases like Alzheimer's without rigorous and conclusive scientific validation.
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