BrainBlog

Discussions about Targretin (bexarotene): From The Wall Street Journal : Alzheimer's Families Clamor for Drug By Shirley S. Wang 11 February 2012 Read the article From the In The Pipeline blog: Bexarotene for Alzheimer's 13 February 2012 Read the blog posting

From Bloomberg : Eli Lilly Shares Rise on Alzheimer’s Drug Hopes By Drew Armstrong and Robert Langreth Dec 6, 2011 [snip] "Solanezumab is an antibody designed to clear protein fragments called beta amyloid that clutter the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Johnson & Johnson and Elan are testing bapineuzumab, a similar drug." [snip] Read the article

From Drug Discovery & Development : Positive Study Results for Schizophrenia Drug Drug Discovery & Development December 05, 2011 "EnVivo Pharmaceuticals announced the analysis of a completed Phase 2b clinical trial of EVP-6124, a novel, orally bioavailable nicotinic alpha-7 agonist, in schizophrenia." Read the full report

On the Discover Magazine website: Maybe You Do Need a Hole in Your Head—to Let the Medicine In Carl Zimmer November 2011 Read the article

A report from Fierce BioTech : Third Rock Ventures Launches SAGE Therapeutics to Address CNS Disorders with Critical Unmet Needs Posted October 18, 2011 [snippet] "Third Rock Ventures, LLC today announced the formation of SAGE Therapeutics. The company was launched with a $35 million Series A financing. SAGE's efforts focus on advancing a broad pipeline of new, critically needed treatments for some of the most disabling central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, pain and traumatic brain injury (TBI). SAGE Therapeutics is founded on a proprietary Positive and Negative Allosteric Modulator (PANAM) chemistry platform that will enable the rapid development of a novel class of allosteric receptor modulators. Steven Paul, M.D., the former executive vice president for science and technology and president of Lilly Research Laboratories and a former scientific director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Douglas Covey, Ph.D., professor o...

Investors ready to craft new biotechs out of Pfizer's discards February 9, 2011 — 8:47am ET By John Carroll FierceBiotech Read the article

"The Drug Deadlock" Nature 11 November 2010 Download the article

FDA rejects a new epilepsy drug from Valeant, GSK FierceBiotech 02 December 2010 Read FierceBiotech article here === Earlier blog post on topic, from 12th August: here ===

From FierceBiotech , an interesting report: Full article: Top 10 Phase III Failures of 2010

From FierceBiotech FDA panel backs new epilepsy drug from GSK, Valeant August 12, 2010 — 7:41am ET By John Carroll "GlaxoSmithKline and Valeant got a solid endorsement for their new epilepsy drug Potiga (ezogabine) from the FDA's panel of experts, putting them on track to a likely approval. The experts unanimously agreed that the drug would benefit epilepsy patients whose meds couldn't stop seizures. And they agreed that careful monitoring would flag patients who experience an inability to urinate while taking the drug." Read the full article

Santoro A, Siviero P, Minicuci N, Bellavista E, Mishto M, Olivieri F, Marchegiani F, Chiamenti AM, Benussi L, Ghidoni R, Nacmias B, Bagnoli S, Ginestroni A, Scarpino O, Feraco E, Gianni W, Cruciani G, Paganelli R, Di Iorio A, Scognamiglio M, Grimaldi LM, Gabelli C, Sorbi S, Binetti G, Crepaldi G, & Franceschi C. Effects of donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine in 938 italian patients with Alzheimer's disease: A prospective, observational study. CNS Drugs. 2010 Feb 1; 24(2): 163-176. doi: 10.2165/11310960-000000000-00000. Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna, Via S. Giacomo 12, Bologna, Italy. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) have been used to improve cognitive status and disability in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, while the efficacy of AChEIs (i.e. how they act in randomized controlled trials) in this setting is widely accepted, their effectiveness (i.e. how they behave in the real world) remains controv...

Today's recommended article to read; abstract from PubMed : Bergmans BA & De Strooper B. gamma-secretases: From cell biology to therapeutic strategies. Lancet Neurology . 2010 Feb; 9(2 ): 215-226. Department of Molecular and Developmental Genetics, VIB, Leuven, Belgium; Center for Human Genetics , Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Presenilins form the catalytic part of the gamma-secretases , protein complexes that are responsible for the intramembranous cleavage of transmembrane proteins. The presenilins are involved in several biological functions, but are best known for their role in the generation of the beta-amyloid (Abeta) peptide in Alzheimer's disease and are therefore thought to be important drug targets for this disorder. Mutations in the presenilin genes cause early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease, but mutation carriers have substantial phenotypic heterogeneity. Recent evidence implicating presenilin mutations in non-Alzheimer's dementia...

From Fierce Biotech : UCSF enters drug discovery agreement with Genentech Posted February 19, 2010 "The University of California, San Francisco has signed a partnership agreement with Genentech, Inc., a wholly owned member of the Roche Group, to discover and develop drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases. "Through the agreement, Genentech will provide funding and its research acumen in neuroscience and will collaborate with UCSF to identify small molecules." Read the full article

From FierceBiotech : GSK launches new specialist unit to research and develop medicines for rare diseases Issued: Thursday 4 February 2010, London UK Read the full article

From FierceBiotech : FDA approves Acorda's new MS drug January 22, 2010 — 4:49pm ET By John Carroll [snip] The FDA announced Friday afternoon that it has approved Ampyra (dalfampridine) extended-release tablets to improve walking in patients with multiple sclerosis. In clinical trials, patients treated with Ampyra had faster walking speeds than those treated with a placebo. This is the first drug approved for this use. [snip] Read the FierceBiotech full article

An Associated Press report this evening outlines changes at a number of Wyeth and Pfizer research facilities: Read article

From The Observer : Can a daily pill really boost your brain power? In America, university students are taking illegally obtained prescription drugs to make them more intelligent. But would you pop a smart pill to improve your performance? Margaret Talbot investigates the brave new world of neuro enhancement Margaret Talbot The Observer Sunday 20 September 2009 Read the article

A report from BusinessWeek from 27 August 2009: Drug, Biotech Research Spending Hangs Tough Overall U.S. corporate R&D spending is down 4% since the end of 2007, but some companies have chosen to buck the trend By Emily Thornton and Frederick Jespersen [snip] Corporate America's research spending shrank 4% overall, or $1.9 billion, from the fourth quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of this year, according to data compiled by Capital IQ on 961 U.S. companies. But many health-care companies have boosted their research outlays. BusinessWeek sought out 25 companies that most aggressively increased their research budgets during the first six months of 2009. Thirteen members of the group, which collectively boosted its spending by $2 billion, were pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Only eight were high-tech outfits, such as Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT). [snip] Read the full article

The September 2009 issue of Wired has a nifty little article on the impact of placebo effects on pharmaceutical clinical trials and pharma company decision making: "Real. Fake. Both Can Cure Depression." by Steve Silberman. === Addendum on 28th August: As you will see from the comments, this piece is available on Wired magazine's website. You can access it here ===