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Dr. Barry Reisberg and Associates Conclude One Year Study on Alzheimer's Drug, Memantine

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 January 2006, 18:00 CST

NEW YORK, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Barry Reisberg, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine and Director of the Fisher Alzheimer's Education and Resources Program is the principal author of a one year study on the drug, memantine. The medication which has yielded success in treating patients with moderate to advanced cases of Alzheimer's disease over a 6 month period, now appears to be effective over a time span of one year. This study was funded by Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany.

Findings on memantine which were published in March 2003 in the New England Journal of Medicine, in moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease patients indicated the efficacy of memantine treatment over a 28 week double-blind trial period. This study was used as a pivotal trial in memantine's approval first in the E.U. in 2002, and subsequently in the U.S. in 2003 and, subsequently, went on the US market as Namenda. It is now used worldwide as the only approved treatment for the more advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease.

This study which appears in the January issue of the Archives of Neurology, examined the effects of continuing the memantine treatment for an additional 24 weeks of open label treatment in both the NEJM study patients and the placebo treated patients.

The findings indicate the continuing benefits over a one year period in the subjects who were originally receiving memantine treatment. Significant benefits in global, functional and cognitive outcomes examined were also found in the original placebo group. The results also indicate the continued, favorable tolerability of the memantine treatment over this extended period.

Dr. Reisberg believes that these results, obtained in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease, significantly extend the timeline of the previous findings.

ABOUT DR. BARRY REISBERG

Dr. Reisberg has served as the Director of the Fisher Alzheimer's Educational and Resources Program since its inception over 10 years ago. He is also the Clinical Director of the Silberstein Aging and Dementia Research Center at New York University School of Medicine, as well as an Adjunct Professor at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, Canada.

Dr. Reisberg was the first to describe many of the most important symptoms of Alzheimer's and the characteristic clinical course of the disease, with the Global Deterioration Scale (1982) and the Functional Assessment Staging measure (1984). His staging tools are presently governmentally mandated measures for certain purposes throughout the U.S., and elsewhere in the world.

Dr. Reisberg has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards for his pioneering research including a Lifetime Achievement Award for Research in Alzheimer's disease from the major worldwide organizations in 2004.

Since 1995, the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation's global research team has been dedicated to spearheading research into the cause, care, and cure for Alzheimer's disease. The Foundation now funds over 85 scientists worldwide under the direction of Nobel laureate Dr. Paul Greengard, headquartered at the Fisher Center for Alzheimemer's Disease Research at The Rockefeller University. It is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with over 94% of every dollar raised directly supporting this research. The Foundation earned the highest rating, 4 out of a possible 4 stars, from Charity Navigator, the leading independent evaluator of charities. Visit http://www.alzinfo.org/ for more information.

Fisher Alzheimer's Educational and Resources Program

CONTACT: Margaret Anne Stern, +1-212-957-3727 for Fisher Center forAlzheimer's Research Foundation

Web site: http://www.alzinfo.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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