Experimental Alzheimer’s drug shows early promise (AP via Yahoo! News)
announced in June that it would abandon development of Flurizan afterward the failure. Full results were presented at the conference Tuesday.
Also, fuller results were given from a closely watched proof of bapineuzumab, an experimental drug that aims to enlist the immune system to clear out the sticky brain clumps.
Its developers — New Jersey-based Wyeth and the Irish company Elan Corp. PLC — antecedently announced that the 240-patient study missed its main goal of improving patients’ mental performance at 18 months.
But the company found a silver lining — the drug appeared to help the roughly 60 percent of people in the search into who did not have a gene that scientists opine makes Alzheimer’s disease more severe.
The results back up the company’s claims of potential effectiveness in some patients, but now there are concerns in an opposite direction possible margin effects. Twelve cases of a type of brain swelling occurred in those on bapineuzumab and none in the placebo group. The swelling caused few whether or not any symptoms, company scientists aforesaid, but outside experts said it may have contributed to other side effects.
Those were two or more times in addition customary in patients on bapineuzumab than people given the dummy put drugs into. For example, cases of anxiety occurred in 11 percent versus 4 percent on placebo; paranoia, 7 versus 1 percent. Other complaints were vomiting,