The Business of Aging

Alzheimer's Drugs: How to Join a Clinical Trial

In this month's (June 2007) AARP Bulletin, there was an article titled Closing In on Alzheimer’s: Finally, new drugs offer real hope for reversing the disease.  It is a very encouraging article about some new therapies on the horizon for treating this horrible disease. Within the article, there is a sidebar on how to join a clinical trial for AD, including information on how to sign up for e-mail alerts about the new trials. 

To find out about clinical trials and studies in your area, call 1-800-438-4380 for the government’s Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center, which can help you locate studies and also answers questions about them.

Doubts About Alzhemed

Last year, there was a lot of positive press about Alzhemed, a possible new treatment for Alzheimer's. At the time, a Phase 2 study showed "that overall, approximately 70% of the mild AD patients had stabilized or improved cognitive function tests even after 20 months of enrollment in the Alzhemed open-label Phase II extension study."

Well this week, some Wall Street analysts suspect Neurochem's (the company that is developing Alzhemed) recently issued $80 million in convertible notes and warrants is an indication the company's unreleased phase 3 trial of its Alzheimer's treatment Alzhemed yielded disappointing results.