Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics Publishes Positive Report on Nymox Alzheimer Test
Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ: NYMX) announces the publication of a positive peer-reviewed paper on the clinical utility of the Company’s AlzheimAlert™ urine test as an aid to physicians in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in the current issue of Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics (January 2008; 8:21-28). The paper, entitled “Practical utility of urinary assay in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: AlzheimAlert™,” is authored by Ira Goodman, MD, the Director of Neurology, Orlando Regional HealthCare, Florida, and Associate Clinical Professor, Departments of Neurology & Medicine, University of Florida School of Medicine.
The article reviews the large number of basic research and clinical studies to date concerning the accuracy and specificity of the Company’s urinary assay and concludes that the product adds significant useful information in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), particularly for the family physician. The author documents several of his own clinical cases where the assay results proved useful in either arriving at a diagnosis of AD or in helping to rule it out. For example, one report involved a 39 year male with an elevated AlzheimAlert™ result supportive of an AD diagnosis. Eventually, extensive further testing confirmed a rare form of familial AD. A second of the author’s cases involved a 54 year old male with a history of cognitive decline and an elevated AlzheimAlert™ result. Eventually, a brain biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. In other cases in the article, negative AlzheimAlert™ results helped eventually to lead to other diagnoses which were not AD.
AlzheimAlert™ is Nymox’s proprietary urine based diagnostic aid for Alzheimer’s disease. The test has the CE Mark, allowing it to be marketed in Europe, and is also available to physicians in the U.S. through the Company’s national CLIA-certified Clinical Reference Laboratory in New Jersey. Data showing the high clinical accuracy and utility of this non-invasive test has been frequently reported in the peer-reviewed literature, including recent papers in the Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis (J Clin Lab Anal. 2007; 21:24-33) and the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2007; 8:21-30).
There are an estimated 4.5 million people with Alzheimer’s disease in the United States alone; by 2050 this number is projected to increase almost three times to 13.2 million. Worldwide estimates of the current number of people with Alzheimer’s disease range from 15 to 20 million. The annual national direct and indirect costs of caring for Alzheimer patients in the U.S. alone are estimated at $100 billion. The human toll on patients, families and caregivers is incalculable.
More information about Nymox is available at www.nymox.com, email: info@nymox.com, or 800-936-9669.
This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and the actual results and future events could differ materially from management’s current expectations. The conduct of clinical trials and the development of drug products involve substantial risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from expectations. Promising early results do not ensure that later stage or larger scale clinical trials will be successful or will proceed as expected. Such factors are detailed from time to time in Nymox’s filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities.