| Alzheimer’s Breakthrough |
For the millions suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) hope for a healthier future may be on the way. Technion Prof. Moussa B.H. Youdim and Hebrew University Prof. Marta Weinstock developed a new drug, Ladostigil, a novel compound designed to provide a comprehensive medical treatment for AD. Now Avraham Pharmaceuticals, a privately held, emerging pharmaceutical company has raised $9 m. for Ladostigil’s development with Phase II proof-of-concept trials in patients with AD. Because of its neuroprotective activity, as shown in laboratory and animal studies, Ladostigil has the potential to slow the progression of clinical symptoms of AD for sustained periods of time and to modify the pathology associated with the disease.
According to Youdim, “Alzheimer’s disease is a complex disorder. All the drugs available for Alzheimer’s disease today provide symptomatic treatment only. They treat the symptoms but not the disease. Based on our many years of research we were able to show that the new drug we’ve developed, Ladostigil, has a neuroprotective effect and we believe that it will be able to treat the disease and not only the symptoms.”
Youdim is Director of the Eve Topf and U.S. National Parkinson Foundation Centers of Excellence for Neurodegenerative Diseases Research and Teaching, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. Together with Technion Prof. John Finberg and Teva Pharmaceuticals, he developed rasagiline, marketed as Azilect®, the only drug for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease that has been proven to have a disease-modifying effect.
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