Testing of Alzheimer’s Drugs Remains a Puzzle


	Testing of Alzheimer’s Drugs Remains a Puzzle

BobbyDelray

9-26-2007 6:32 PM

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tags:

alzheimer's, testing, clinical trials, ecperimental drugs, peter davies, rudolph tanzi

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/1bbf455e-b4b2-402e-b9fd-859968a1af57/B20FAB8E-3BDB-47F2-9D1F-7BA6540001C4/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/09/26/testing-alzheimers-drugs-remains-a-puzzle/" href="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/09/26/testing-alzheimers-drugs-remains-a-puzzle/" style="font-size: 11px;">blogs.wsj.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/09/26/testing-alzheimers-drugs-remains-a-puzzle/"><P><IMG height="93" hspace="0" src="http://online.wsj.com/media/it_pj-brain.gif" width="100" align="left" vspace="0" />Alzheimer’s is a brutal disease, and it’s been brutally resistant to treatment. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/09/26/testing-alzheimers-drugs-remains-a-puzzle/"><P>There are plenty of <A href="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/06/11/alzheimers-pipeline-lower-drug-prices-and-ct-scans-for-trees/" target="blank">experimental drugs</A> in development now, but the drawn-out, inexorable decline for patients with the disease makes it tough for researchers to tease out whether a drug is having an effect. That’s especially true in the early, small trials of medicines that have just started on their journey out of the lab. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/09/26/testing-alzheimers-drugs-remains-a-puzzle/"><P>“Unless it’s a Lazarus drug, the only way to see the results is to do a <A href="http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/info/phase" target="blank">Phase III</A> study,” <A href="http://www.aecom.yu.edu/pathology/faculty_details1.aspx?id=24" target="blank">Peter Davies</A>, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said Monday in a briefing sponsored by New York City Chapter of the <A href="http://www.alz.org/" target="blank">Alzheimer’s Association</A>. As a result, he said, companies are forced to push potential drugs into late-stage trials that enroll more than 1,000 patients, last for years and cost millions. “It puts you in a huge gamble,” Davies said. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/09/26/testing-alzheimers-drugs-remains-a-puzzle/"><P>Davies and <A href="http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/neuroscience/fac/tanzi.html" target="blank">Rudolph Tanzi</A> of Harvard were speakers at a meeting of the Alzheimer’s group last night. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/09/26/testing-alzheimers-drugs-remains-a-puzzle/"></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/B20FAB8E-3BDB-47F2-9D1F-7BA6540001C4/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>