Dr. Daniel Selchen, Head of the Division of Neurology at the University of Toronto, hosts a discussion of highlights from the ECF meeting that was held last November 19-22, 2014 in Baveno, Italy. Read More
Neurology
Passive immunotherapies in AD: new data from AAIC
February 4, 2015View Part 1 on active immunotherapies
Monoclonal antibodies targeting beta-amyloid have produced a series of disappointments. Two phase III trials of bapineuzumab showed no significant effect on ADAS-cog or Disability Assessment for Dementia scores in patients with mild to moderate AD either with or without the APOE4 allele (Salloway et al. N Engl J Med 2014;370:322-333). A similar lack of efficacy was seen in the two phase III EXPEDITION studies of solanezumab (Doody et al. N Engl J Med 2014;370:311-321). Solanezumab is now being studied in patients with early-stage AD. Read More
Pharma sales projected to top $1 trillion
February 4, 2015Worldwide pharmaceutical sales are projected to exceed USD$1 trillion in 2020, according to an analysis by EvaluatePharma, a market intelligence company. Global sales in 2013 were $717 billion. Growth over the next seven years is projected to be about 5% per year despite a loss (-1.6%) in 2012 and minimal growth (+0.3%) in 2013. Higher growth is largely attributed to the development of biological agents, which are priced higher than pharmaceuticals and are less likely to be genericized. Read More
Serotonergic mechanisms in PD: two reports
December 10, 2014Two studies have investigated the potential benefits of targeting serotonergic neurotransmission in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Read More
Future uncertain for active immunotherapies in AD – Part 1
December 10, 2014The recent failure of active immunotherapies targeting beta-amyloid in Alzheimer’s disease has dampened some of the initial enthusiasm for this approach. Development of AN1792, an active beta-amyloid vaccine, was terminated following the development of meningoencephalitis in 6% of vaccinated subjects. This complication was attributed to use of full-length beta-amyloid1-42. Read More