Genentech to test Alzheimer's drug in landmark prevention trial

SAN FRANCISCO. May 16. KAIZINFORM U.S. biotechnology company Genentech announced on Tuesday that it has been picked for a first- ever Alzheimer's disease prevention trial which may determine whether one of the company's experimental drugs could delay or prevent people with a genetic history to get the dementia, Kazinform refers to Xinhua.

According to the South San Francisco-headquartered company, the study will involve about 300 cognitively healthy people from local families in Medellin, Colombia. All of them can be traced to a common descendant and share a rare genetic mutation that typically triggers Alzheimer's symptoms around age 45. The study will also include a small number of participants in the United States.

The experimental drug is called crenezumab, which is an antibody treatment designed to bind to amyloid beta. Amyloid beta is the main constituent of amyloid plaque in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease and widely taken as the leading cause of the disease.

With a unique patient population, the trial will study patients before they show any symptoms and may help determine if the amyloid hypothesis is correct, which will make it a historic study, said Richard Scheller, Genentech's executive vice president of research and early development.

Genentech said it will collaborate with the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Banner Alzheimer's Institute, a nonprofit orgnization based in Phoenix, Arizona which will lead the study.

The Banner Alzheimer's Institute got a 16-million-U.S. dollar grant from the U.S. National Alzheimer's Plan announced on Tuesday along with 15 million dollars donation from the Banner Alzheimer's Foundation. Genentech will pay an estimated 100 million dollars in total costs for the study.

The pharmaceutical industry has been struggling to develop a drug that has been safe and effective for Alzheimer's disease. Genentech's crenezumab stands out from its rivals as it has shown no significant safety issues. In 2010, Eli Lilly halted its study of an anti-amyloid drug after finding it worsened patient's cognition and ability to perform daily functions.

Last year, the U.S. Congress passed National Alzheimer's Project to address the human and economic toll of a disease that afflicts around 5.4 million Americans, a number that is expected to triple by 2050.

In 2009, Genentech was acquired by Swiss global health-care company Roche for approximately 46.8 billion dollars.