Hoechst-Roussel Drops Velnacrine
Hoechst-Roussel has stopped development of its Alzheimer's disease treatment Mentane (velnacrine). The drug had its application for a UK product license turned down recently by the Medicines Control Agency.
A spokesman for the company said that velnacrine was dropped from development because it could not offer a better efficacy profile than Warner-Lambert's Cognex (tacrine), a cholinesterase inhibitor which has already been launched in France and the USA and itself has limited efficacy. Furthermore, substantial resources would need to be devoted to getting the drug to market.
The spokesman said that Hoechst-Roussel was now concentrating on a more promising drug with a slightly different mode of action. Besipirdine, a compound with both cholinergic, noradrenergic and serotonergic agonist activity, is being tested in Phase II/III trials in the USA by Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals Inc. No Euro-pean centers are involved in these trials as yet. Results from some of the efficacy trials of besipirdine are expected to be available in late 1994.
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