Alzheimer’s drug lowers mortality
pharmafile | December 7, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Alzheimer's, Janssen, Razadyne, Roche, lilly
A study of Janssen Pharmaceuticals’ Razadyne suggests that the Alzheimer’s drug helped patients stay alive longer and slowed their cognitive decline compared to placebo.
After two years, the Janssen-sponsored study showed 3.1% of patients taking acetylcholinesterase inhibitor Razadyne (galantamine) had died, versus 4.9% of those in the placebo arm.
There was a total of 89 deaths: 33 (3.2%) in the Razadyne group and 56 (5.5%) in the placebo group – and in fact an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board recommended early termination of the study due to the imbalance.
Meanwhile the change from a baseline of 19 in the Mini Mental Status Evaluation – a measure of cognition – after two years showed that mean MMSE scores deteriorated to 16.9 (placebo arm) and 17.5 (Razadyne).
The data was presented at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology 51st Annual Meeting in Florida.
Radazyne is approved to treat symptoms of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, such as memory loss – but there is no evidence that it can alter the course of the underlying process of dementia.
However, while the drug was only being compared to the effects of placebo, any ray of hope in Alzheimer’s treatment tends to be seized upon.
This is an area of enduring interest for pharma companies, as ageing populations inevitably mean increases in the disease’s prevalence.
In England alone, 670,000 people are living with dementia, with one in three people set to develop the condition in the future. The government says the cost is £19 billion a year – more than cancer, heart disease and stroke combined.
As many as 115 million people worldwide could be affected by dementia by 2050, including 1.7 million in the UK, the Department of Health says.
Yet at present there is no cure, with available treatments only slowing the progression of the condition and therefore having the potential to give patients and carers a better quality of life.
In October Roche and Eli Lilly announced they were providing investigational compounds free of charge for a worldwide trial of Alzheimer’s disease treatments in 2013.
And the UK government has been at pains to highlight research, launching a Challenge on Dementia and two months ago calling for international collaboration to help the UK’s R&D efforts.
Adam Hill
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