Glaxo Licenses Duke Alzheimer's Discovery

Glaxo has signed an agreement with Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA, for a license to its patent on the apolipoprotein E gene implicated as a causative factor in late-onset Alzheimer's.

Under the five-year agreement, Allen Roses, neurologist at the university and leader of the team that discovered the gene's role in the disease, will collaborate with Glaxo investigators in the UK and Switzerland.

The researchers found that of the three forms of the gene, E2, E3, and E4, the E4 form conferred a genetic risk to developing the disorder and lowered the age of onset of the disease. Additional research has shown that the E2 form of the gene apparently confers a protective effect against the disorder. According to the researchers, people who inherited an apoE2 gene with an apoE3 gene developed the disease on average 20 years later than people with two E4 genes.