BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

NICE issues final appraisal for AD drugs

May 27, 2006 12:06 AM UTC

The U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) finalized its appraisal of drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease. The agency still recommends that three acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors that are approved to treat mild to moderately severe Alzheimer's disease should be used only for moderately severe AD. NICE also retained its recommendation for the NMDA receptor antagonist Ebixa memantine, which it believes should be used only in clinical trials.

The AChE inhibitors include Aricept donepezil from Eisai (Tokyo:4523; Osaka:4523) and Pfizer (PFE); Razadyne (formerly Reminyl) galantamine from Shire (LSE:SHP; SHPGY) and Janssen (Beerse, Belgium); and Exelon rivastigmine from Novartis (NVS; SWX:NOVN). Ebixa was discovered by Neurobiological Technologies (NTII) and is marketed in the EU by H. Lundbeck (CSE:LUN). ...