Alzheimer's drug study encouraging

A phase two follow-on study by Myriad Genetics of Flurizan in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease showed they regained cognitive ability after the yearlong formal clinical trial ended.

The results of the six-month follow-on study were presented last week at the Neuroscience 2005 meeting in Washington, D.C., by Dr. Sandra E. Black, professor of neurology at the University of Toronto and lead investigator in Canada for the phase two trial of Flurizan.

"The 18-month follow-on data are striking in that Flurizan-treated patients appear to be regaining cognitive functions like memory and thinking ability that they had previously lost to the disease," said Dr. Daniel Christensen, clinical professor of neurology, psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Utah. "This is a truly exciting finding in the development of a potential future treatment of Alzheimer's disease."

After completion of Myriad's 12-month phase two trial of Flurizan, study participants in Canada could choose to continue in a follow-on study, which 81 percent of participants did. Those who had previously received placebos during the phase two trial were randomized to receive either 400 milligrams or 800 milligrams of the study medication.

Participants who were taking Flurizan in the initial phase two trial continued on the same dose they had been receiving. However, neither patients and their caregivers, nor their doctors, knew which arm of the study the patients were in.

Now Myriad is enrolling patients with mild Alzheimer's disease for a phase three double-blind trial at 130 centers in the United States, where patients will receive either 800 milligrams of Flurizan or placebo twice a day for a year.

Information on the clinical trial is available by calling 1-800-649-7316.