A vaccine developed by Elan Pharmaceuticals (Dublin, Ireland) and American Home Products (Madison, NJ) has been shown to reverse one of the pathological changes seen in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease—the formation of amyloid plaques. However, there are plenty of skeptics of the “amyloid hypothesis,” and Elan is still far from a cure for the disease in humans. However, despite a lack of consensus about the pathology and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, investors say the importance of Elan's preliminary data should not be overlooked.
Currently, the only treatments for Alzheimer's disease on the market are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which provide relief of some of the symptoms but do not stall the underlying disease process. These drugs include Pfizer's (New York) Aricept, Novartis's (Basel, Switzerland) Exelon and, most recently, Shire Pharmaceuticals' (Andover, UK) Reminyl. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors boost the concentrations of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is implicated in cognition, but the effect of the drugs wears off as the degenerative process progresses. Despite this limitation, drugs in this class enjoy a $1 billion market.
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