Cancer Drug Erases Alzheimer's Symptoms in Days

Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The drug in question, Bexarotene has been approved for the treatment of cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more than a decade.

Alzheimer's Reading Room 

Gary Landreth

In the study described below, the cancer drug Bexarotene quickly and dramatically improved brain function and social ability and restored the sense of smell in mice bred with a form of Alzheimer's disease. 

Imagine this.

Within hours of taking the drug, amyloid plaques began to clear out of the mice’s brains. After three days, more than 50 percent of the Alzheimer’s plaques had disappeared, and the mice regained some of the cognitive and memory functions typically lost in Alzheimer's disease.

Medivation (MDVN) and Pfizer (PFE) Announce Results from Phase 3 Concert Trial of Dimebon in Alzheimer’s Disease

Medivation (MDVN) and Pfizer (PFE) will discontinue development of dimebon for all indications and will terminate the ongoing open label extension study in Alzheimer’s disease. The companies also announce that they will terminate their collaboration to co-develop and market dimebon pursuant to the terms of their Collaboration Agreement.

Read More on the Alzheimer's Reading Room -- Alzheimer's Drug Dimebon (Medivation) Fails, Sad Day

This brings the number of consecutive failed clinical trials for Alzheimer's medications to 15.

Medivation Starts New Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's -- Dimebon

I wanted to bring this into you awareness

Full disclosure: I am in the process of determining if my mother is a candidate for the Dimebon with Namenda clinical trial. Protocol Number: B1451006

No Dimebon clinical data exist yet in patients with disease that has advanced to the moderate-to-severe stage. Therefore, this study evaluates the safety and efficacy of Dimebon in patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease who are receiving existing background therapy with memantine (namenda).

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MDVN Starts New Alzheimer’s Trials

Earlier this month, Medivation, Inc. (MDVN - Analyst Report) and Pfizer, Inc. (PFE - Analyst Report) initiated two phase III studies, CONTACT and CONSTELLATION, with Dimebon in patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease (AD). Dimebon is being developed in collaboration with Pfizer for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Huntington diseases.

The CONTACT study will assess the potential benefits of adding Dimebon to ongoing treatment with Pfizer’s Aricept on neuropsychiatric symptoms and activities of daily living. Meanwhile, the CONSTELLATION study will evaluate the effects of adding Dimebon to Forest Lab’s (FRX - Analyst Report) Namenda, another standard of care, on cognition, memory and activities of daily living.

Preclinical studies indicate that Dimebon has the potential to protect brain cells from damage and enhance brain cell survival, by stabilizing and improving mitochondrial function. Dimebon’s mechanism is distinct from currently available Alzheimer’s medications.

Dimebon is currently in seven studies which are evaluating the safety and efficacy of the candidate across all stages of Alzheimer's disease, both as monotherapy as well as in combination with currently available Alzheimer's treatments, and in Huntington disease.

Dimebon’s unique mechanism of action and efficacy seen in clinical trials could make it a significant player in the worldwide Alzheimer’s market, which represents huge commercial potential. It is estimated that the market is currently worth about $5 billion.

Dimebon has successfully completed the first of two pivotal trials required to gain marketing approval in the U.S. for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. A second confirmatory phase III study, CONNECTION, is currently ongoing. We expect to see top-line results from this study in the first half of 2010. Positive results should allow Medivation to go ahead with the filing of the new drug application (NDA) for the Alzheimer’s indication in 2011.

We currently have a Neutral recommendation on Medivation.

All of the above investment information is from Zacks investment research. It does not represent any opinion on our part.

To read more about Medivation and Dimebon -- go here.

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Bob DeMarco is the editor of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. The Alzheimer's Reading Room is the number one website on the Internet for news, advice, and insight into Alzheimer's disease. Bob has written more than 950 articles with more than 8,000 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.

Original content Bob DeMarco, Alzheimer's Reading Room