Alzheimer's and AAMI Reviewed by NeuroPerspective

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- NI Research has released the September issue of NeuroPerspective, which features a comprehensive review of Alzheimer's therapeutics.

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"Alzheimer's constitutes the single largest opportunity in the pharma world, but it also presents a daunting legacy of clinical disappointments. To some degree, the neuroscience area has allowed theory to drive the science, instead of the other way around, and as a result, the path to disease-modifying therapies has seen remarkably little headway made, and symptomatic treatments have taken on greater relative importance," said NeuroPerspective publisher Harry Tracy PhD.

"The lack of satisfactory options means that those in the real world treating Alzheimer's may gratefully add a new drug to the repertoire, so long as they are sure it is reasonably safe and they can say that it will probably help–even if the magnitude of that added benefit may be invisible to the naked eye," he said. "After all, everyone, including the companies, the patients, their families, and the prescribers, want to believe that theirs is not an exercise in futility. While NIR's optimistic expectations of 10 or 15 years ago have turned to ashes, it is difficult to believe that a decade from now, we still will not have a treatment that slows the progression of the disease. Even though the fingerprint of the pathophysiological root cause has yet to be definitively identified, the emergence of genomically-tracked midstream targets, and the biomarkers and models needed to validate them, should streamline the vetting of new therapeutic candidates going forward."

The September issue also includes a review of AAMI, Age-Associated Memory Impairment, the first published in NeuroPerspective since 2007. In this context, AAMI refers not to a prodromal stage of pre-dementia, but to the diminution of memory functions that greets most of us as we enter middle age. The FDA has not yet deemed this aging phenomenon a clinical indication in its own right, but the review considers indirect evidence that this is a process still unfolding, and the mechanisms and programs that may be best positioned to be memory-restorative candidates.

This 70-page issue includes:

1. An overview of the biology of Alzheimer's as it is currently conceptualized, albeit not yet validated. While beta-amyloid continues to be the most popular target, tau and neuroinflammation have achieved a much higher profile as important mechanisms in AD, and there are multiple downstream access points that may be relevant to multiple neurodegenerative disorders.
2. The companies and programs that are in clinical, preclinical and discovery stage. Over 200 therapeutic programs are included in this review. The issue includes assessments of continued efforts to find an effective antibody strategy, and a candid assessment of the aducanumab and solanezumab programs in Phase III. The issue also focuses upon variations on the beta-secretase theme from Merck, Lilly/AstraZeneca, Biogen/Eisai, and Novartis; beta-amyloid targeting alternatives from companies like Acumen, American Life Science Partners, Probiodrug; alternative approaches to disease progression from Axon-Neuroscience, TauRx, AC Immune, Prana, and NeuroPhage; and symptomatic therapies, in development by Forum Pharma, Lundbeck/Otsuka, Axovant, Otsuka/Avanir, and Acadia Pharmaceuticals.
3. Commentaries on the acquisition of Naurex by Allergan; the illusion of efficiency offered by some AD population enrichment strategies; and mAbMEN: It's Not Over.
4. An overview of AAMI, pertinent mechanisms of memory, the companies most likely to participate, and the importance of Calico LLC as a harbinger of regulatory change.
5. The two Company Spotlight reviews cover AgeneBio and Axon-Neuroscience.  

About NI Research
NI Research is the leading publisher of independent research on the neurotherapeutics industry, and has developed an unmatched information base regarding both publicly and privately held CNS companies. NeuroPerspective is the authoritative, independent, monthly review of the neurotherapeutics area, providing critical analyses of therapeutics-in-development.

A one-year (1-5 user) subscription to NeuroPerspective is $2490.  The Alzheimer's review issue of NeuroPerspective is being made available as a single-issue purchase for $400.

NI Research has also recently released the 2015-16 edition of NeuroLicensing, which comprehensively reviews current licensing trends in the CNS area, and assesses large and midsize pharma companies in terms of their licensing agendas and performance. In addition, NI Research provides consulting services to the pharma industry.

Further information and online purchasing with immediate download are available at http://www.niresearch.com/onlinestore.html.

Contact: NI Research, P.O. Box 1028, Cardiff CA 92007; 760-753-6376.
E-mail: [email protected]

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Harry Tracy
NI Research
760-753-6376
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