Neurologists value speed and efficacy over safety for ALS pipeline drugs, study finds

Neu­rol­o­gists who were asked about new treat­ments for amy­otroph­ic lat­er­al scle­ro­sis (ALS) say they val­ue ef­fi­ca­cy and qual­i­ty-of-life im­prove­ments over safe­ty for drugs in de­vel­op­ment.

The typ­i­cal­ly rapid pro­gres­sion of the ter­mi­nal dis­ease is the chief fac­tor in the safe­ty sen­ti­ment, said Alis­sa Al­gar­in, se­nior in­sights an­a­lyst at Spher­ix Glob­al In­sights. As one neu­rol­o­gist told the sur­vey­ors: “In a con­di­tion like this, I’m more to­wards ef­fi­ca­cy be­cause if you’re dead it doesn’t mat­ter how safe the drug was.”

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