Pfizer, Medivation Drug May Help Huntington’s Disease Patients
By Shannon Pettypiece
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- A 27-year-old hay fever treatment being studied by Pfizer Inc. and Medivation Inc. for Alzheimer’s disease may also help patients with Huntington’s disease.
The drug, called Dimebon, improved mental functioning and awareness in patients with Huntington’s, a degenerative neurological disorder that runs in families, according to research released today by the Archives of Neurology. The study of 91 patients, which was funded by Medivation, showed minimal side effects, researchers said.
The findings are encouraging because there are no treatments for the psychological effects of Huntington’s which affects about 25,000 people in North America, said Karl Kieburtz, lead author of the study and professor of neurology at the University of Rochester in New York. Symptoms of Huntington’s typically start in middle age and include muscle twitching, depression, aggression, loss of orientation and memory. A larger, long-term study will be needed to see if the benefits were from the pill or by chance, Kieburtz said.
“It is really a shot in the arm for us,” Keiburtz said in a telephone interview. “There is a suggestion of efficacy and that, along with the fact there had been improvement in cognition in Alzheimer’s patients in a prior trial in Russia, has led us to think there might be something here.”
Withstand Stress
Scientists believe Dimebon may help Huntington’s patients, as well as those with Alzheimer’s, because of its effect on mitochondria, parts of cells that help convert food into energy, the study said. Previous laboratory findings showed Dimebon improved cells’ function and helps them withstand stress.
The study evaluated 91 patients who took either Dimebon or a placebo for three months and was primarily designed to evaluate the pill’s safety.
In the study, patients taking Dimebon were more likely to correctly answer questions about what year it was and where they were, count backward, and recall words over a short period of time. The drug didn’t appear to have an impact on a broader assessment that measured motor function, cognition and behavior. It also didn’t show a benefit when researchers measured cognition in the Huntington’s patients using a test developed for Alzheimer’s patients.
Medivation, based in San Francisco, and Pfizer of New York are working on a study involving 350 Huntington’s patients for six months that is part of the third and final stage of testing required to get U.S. regulatory approval. Results from a separate late-stage study in Alzheimer’s patients are expected to be released in the first half of this year.
Russian Company
Medivation acquired Dimebon, which has been used since 1983 to treat hay fever in the former Soviet Union, from a company formed by Sergey Bachurin, a researcher at the Institute of Psychologically Active Compounds, in Chemogolovka, Russia.
The drug was first identified as a candidate to protect neurons when the Russian Academy of Science, in Chernogolovka, Russia, started in the early 1990s to screen libraries of compounds for their ability to block a key brain receptor. Belief in the drug was bolstered when researchers found it improved learning in brain-damaged rodents.
