[olsen]

from the financial sector: news on Dimebon failure to meet clinical goals

Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDVN) shaded over 68% of its value and now trading at $12.85 after hitting a new 52-week low of $12.55 after the company's experimental drug Dimebon failed to meet the main goals in a late-stage clinical trial for Alzheimer's disease.
http://www.emailwire.com/release/352...VISN-MDVN.html

[paula_w]

Looks like they found dimebon in a way similar to amantadine. But they don't think the antihistamine was what caused the improvement in alzheimers patients. It is an old allergy drug.

here is a direct link to the announcement and article

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pfizer...16347.html?x=0

i couldn't help but notice that olsen posted this trial failure and i read it and went to the link and the news was just posted 14 minutes prior to my getting there. this forum is so on top of it. anyway this one is not a cholinesterase inhibitor so i hope they don't give up on it. somewhere i read - maybe in Olsen's article, that one person said," you don't give up on it just because of one failure." UH.....ye...ah!

adding question: do people with alzheimers have a placebo effect? can they? this was late stage alzhheimers but with cognitive loss could you still have the placebo effect. note that they say this didn't work with either group. with pd they all work.....wondering.

Yet in the final-stage study, which included 598 patients with an average age of 74, symptoms didn't subside in either patients getting Dimebon or those getting dummy pills.


paula
another article from 2008
http://www.rxlist.com/script/main/ar...ticlekey=88934

Originally Posted by olsen

from the financial sector: news on Dimebon failure to meet clinical goals

Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDVN) shaded over 68% of its value and now trading at $12.85 after hitting a new 52-week low of $12.55 after the company's experimental drug Dimebon failed to meet the main goals in a late-stage clinical trial for Alzheimer's disease.
http://www.emailwire.com/release/352...VISN-MDVN.html

[lindylanka]

Paula,
I saw an article recently and forgot to bookmark it for you - aaargh pd brain - the gist was that placebo was big with nearly all groups of patients, it was not about PD at all. So guess it could be there with altzheimers too

[olsen]

wonder if the company will test this antihistamine in Huntington's and or PD. the drug's mechanisms of action sounded very like dextromethorphan's to me.
I am hoping it will be tested in PD.
and Paula, I find it so interesting that much of the newest info about drugs shows up in the financial sector news long before it is published in mainstream. indication of primary goal/real interest/motivation? or just a better reporting crew?



(copied from an earlier post on Dimebon):

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...hlight=dimebon


(I wondered if this antihistamine had any mechanisms of action related to dextromethorphan (which is a morphine analog) whose primary actions for which PD patients use it are its anti NMDA actions(?)...Dimebon is also an NMDA antagonist, and in addition, affects Ca++ and mt permability pores.)

http://hdlighthouse.org/research/tri...nicaltrial.php
" Based on earlier work in Russia, it appears that this drug may regulate calcium homeostasis, prevent pathological opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pores, and reduce the excitotoxicity of NMDA receptors.

References:

S. Bachurin, E. Bukatina, N. Lermontova, S. Tkachenko, A. Afanasiev, V. Grigoriev, I. Grigorieva, Yu. Ivanov, S. Sablin, and N. Zefirov. "Antihistamine Agent Dimebon As a Novel Neuroprotector and a Cognition Enhancer." Annals of the N.Y. Academy of Sciences 939(June 2001): 425-435.

S. Bachurin, E. P. Shevtsova, E. G. Kireeva, G. F. Oxenkrug, and S. O. Sablin. "Mitochondria as a Target for Neurotoxins and Neuroprotective Agents." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 993(May 2003):334-344. "

[Beelio]

Dimebon's antihistamine action, and the studies showing reduced neuro-degeneration, is likely to encounter resistance from a multi-billion dollar industry. Industry-approved drugs are driven by profits not efficacy.

To reduce the destruction of nerve cells it may prove useful to reduce inflammation (dimebon, anti-histamines), glutathione, CoQ 10, DHA acids, life style changes, and dietary improvements.

It is also necessary to identify the specific auto-immune, or genetic predisposition, or other - to effectively target the underlying metabolic dysfunction that promotes the specific inflammatory process.

Now induce an effective program for cellular regeneration... it's out there, but you have eliminate the fire and keep the environment stable - two therapies that must be effectively combined for neuro-regeneration.

[mrsD]

The most recent links on the net show Dimebon is failing on several fronts for neuro protection:

example:
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/04/...gtons-disease/

http://content.karger.com/produktedb...asp?doi=324989