Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[Drano]

Dosage may be dependent on weight, interactions with other drugs someone might be taking (for example, statins, which are known to have caused cognitive impairment in some people) or other illnesses like kidney or liver problems, diabetes, etc.

Yes, it would be wonderful to simplify things by saying to a caregiver, "Give the patient one of these pills every morning," or whatever the dosage interval is. But if some caregiver has to give someone a dose of 2-73 and a dose of donepazil at the same time because a combination pill is not available -- believe me, they will do it.

I view the combo drug as a convenience but not a necessity for 2-73 approval.

There is one other possibility: sometimes other diseases can masquerade as Alzheimers. Some researchers believe that "Alz" is a cluster of several diseases which manifest with the same symptoms. It's possible that the 2 non-responders may not actually have the form of Alz that the drug works on -- or perhaps they just aren't getting the right dose yet. What works for one person may not work for another. If 2-73 ends up working for "only" 10 of every 12 patients, that's 10 more than are helped by the other approved drugs.