Chinoin's Selegiline For Alzheimer's?

Chinoin's selective irreversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase B, selegiline, may be an effective treatment for some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, according to presentations at a neurological meeting held in Prague, the Czech Republic, last month.

The compound is already available and is widely used as an adjunct to L-dopa therapy in patients suffering from another neurodegenerative condition, Parkinson's disease. It has been launched for this indication in the USA, Canada, Europe and Australasia. It has also been approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, and other approvals are expected in the future. Submissions have also been filed in Austria and Switzerland.

Chinoin, a Hungarian firm which is 51%-owned by France's Sanofi, presented the results of two studies of selegiline in Alzheimer's at a satellite symposium. The first study, a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 173 patients, revealed that mild-to-moderately affected Alzheimer's patients taking selegiline showed a significant improvement in spatial and object memory compared to those taking placebo. The duration of the trial was six months. The second study, which was smaller and crossover in design, found that combining selegiline with the cholinesterase inhibitor tacrine (Warner-Lambert's Cognex) produced a significant improvement in cognitive function compared to tacrine alone.