If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  ISSSAT: Memantine Promising For Patients With Vascular Dementia FRANKFURT/MAIN, GERMANY -- April 11, 2000 -- Memantine, a drug for which applications have been developed in Germany by Merz + Co., improved the abilities of individuals suffering from mild to moderate vascular dementia in two Phase III randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Results of the trials were announced on April 7 at the Sixth International Stockholm/Springfield Symposium on Advances in Alzheimer Therapy, April 5-8, Stockholm. Of a total of 900 patients investigated in the two studies, the memantine-treated patients showed significant improvement in cognitive performance, according to researchers in the United Kingdom and France. "These promising results represent further hope for people who suffer from vascular dementia and for their families," said Hans-Joerg Moebius, M.D., vice president of research and development of the Pharma Division, Merz + Co. GmbH & Co., Frankfurt, Germany. Similar positive results were found using memantine to treat patients with moderately severe to severe Alzheimer's disease in a Phase III trial conducted in the United States. Details of the U.S. study will be presented by principal investigator Barry Reisberg, M.D., of New York University Medical Center at the Seventh Alzheimer's Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., July 9-13. The two European studies were conducted using several measurement tools, including the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-cog), the Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGI-C) and the Mini Mental-State Examination (MMSE). Patients treated with memantine showed significantly improved cognitive abilities compared to the patients who received a placebo as demonstrated by the ADAS-cog, according to Gordon Wilcock, M.D., of Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, England, lead investigator for the U.K. trial. He gave the results of the 28-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 579 patients in 57 sites throughout the United Kingdom. He added that patients who had more severe disease showed the most improvement. The second trial included 321 patients at 50 sites in France and was conducted by F. Forette, M.D., and Jean-Marc Orgogozo, M.D., of Paris and Bordeaux. Compared to placebo, memantine treatment resulted in significantly improved cognitive function as shown by two independent performance-based assessments, ADAS-cog and MMSE, according to Orgogozo. Again, the largest treatment benefit in ADAS-cog was observed in patients with more advanced disease. There is currently no effective treatment for vascular dementia (VaD), the second leading dementia type, which is becoming more prevalent as people throughout the world are living longer. Although not a part of normal aging, VaD most often occurs in older people. Memantine is a drug with both neuroprotective and symptomatic improvement properties, according to Dr. Moebius. "When cells are injured or damaged by the disease process, they send out abnormal signals, resulting in loss of neurological function," he said. "Damaged brain tissue releases excessive amounts of glutamate (the salt of glutamic acid, the dominant excitatory amino acid in the brain), causing toxic levels of calcium to enter neurons, resulting in further harm. Memantine appears to protect the brain from this 'excitoxicity' by reducing the neuronal influx of calcium while allowing normal signal transmission between neurons. "The drug, which is delivered in daily tablets, has been shown to have few side effects," Dr. Moebius added. "Those that occur are usually mild and short-lived." Memantine is an uncompetitive moderate-affinity N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist. According to Johannes Kornhuber, M.D., and associates in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Goettingen, Germany, memantine may protect against dementia progression and fight the development of learning deficits. The symptomatic effect of memantine might be explained by an improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio in the neuronal transmission of information, according to Kornhuber's presentation at the Stockholm meeting. Memantine also is being investigated to treat pain associated with diabetic neuropathy and AIDS-related dementia by Merz's U.S. research and development collaborator, Neurobiological Technologies, Inc. (NTI), of Richmond, California. Merz + Co., a privately owned German pharmaceutical company, is a leading company in central nervous system research in Germany. Merz develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products worldwide. The Stockholm/Springfield Symposium was organized by the School of Medicine at Southern Illinois University, Illinois, U.S.; the Department of Geriatrics at Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland; and the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Occupational Therapy and Elderly Care Research, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Core supporters include AstraZeneca, Aventis Pharma, Janssen-Cilag, Eisai and Pfizer, Merz & Company, Novartis Pharma and Pharmacia & Upjohn. Related Link: Merz & Company.
|
