Posted on 03/10/2010 3:03:00 PM PST by neverdem
It seemed somewhat unlikely, but in recent years an old Russian hay fever pill had become one of the world’s best hopes for treating the growing epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease.
But those hopes were dashed on Wednesday when the drug failed in its first late-stage clinical trial, dealing a blow not only to patients with Alzheimer’s and their families but to the companies developing the treatment — a start-up in San Francisco called Medivation and the world’s largest drug company, Pfizer.
The companies said in a statement that the drug, called Dimebon, had shown virtually no effect after six months in treating the cognitive decline or behavioral problems associated with Alzheimer’s when compared with a placebo.
The result was somewhat surprising, because in a smaller previous trial, Dimebon had shown what some experts characterized as better results than any of the drugs already approved for Alzheimer’s disease. It seemed to improve cognitive function or at least stave off mental decline for about 18 months, while the existing treatments do so for only about six months, experts said...
--snip--
Executives at both companies said they needed to further analyze the results before making such decisions...
(Excerpt) Read more at gainesville.com ...
This appears to be the study according to its date. It didn't give any population numbers by race. Here's an article about the earlier Russian study.
bttt
--New imaging technology suggests an experimental drug for Alzheimer's reduces clumps of plaque in the brain by around 25 percent, lifting hopes for a medicine that disappointed in clinical tests two years ago.
---Bapineuzumab — being developed by Pfizer Inc, Irish drugmaker Elan Corp. and Johnson & Johnson — is a potential game-changer because it could be the first drug to treat the underlying cause of the degenerative brain disease.
Thanks for the link. That’s a monoclonal antibody.
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