New Drug for Alzheimer's Cleared by FDA

A new treatment for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The drug, called Reminyl (galantamine hybrobromide), was developed by Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc (Andover, UK) and the Janssen Research Foundation (Titusville, NJ, USA) under a co-development and licensing agreement. The drug is being marketed outside the United States by Janssen-Cilag (Beerse, Belgium), except in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it is marketed by Shire.

Alzheimer's patients progressively deteriorate, yet studies show that Reminyl can be beneficial to many individuals with the disease. "Studies lasting up to six months showed that patients' symptoms initially may improve or stabilize, and even when they begin to decline, they remain better than those who were treated with placebo,” reported Gary Small, M.D., director of the Center on Aging at the University of California in Los Angeles (CA, USA).

Shire Pharmaceuticals is focused on central nervous system disorders, metabolic diseases, oncology, and gastroenterology. In December 2000, Shire entered into an agreement to merge with BioChem Pharma, Inc. to form a global specialty pharmaceutical company.



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