Hoechst's Propentofylline Set For Spring '95 Filing

Despite the disappointment of discontinuing development of its dementia treatment velnacrine, after trials involving over 1,000 patients, Hoechst has two further drugs which it believes will represent real advances over the only approved medication to date, Warner-Lambert's Cognex (tacrine).

Giving an update on the company's near-term clinical pipeline, Hoechst's head of clinical research Rotraut Labs has predicted that the company's new lead dementia product, propentofylline, could be filed for approval in Europe by next spring, following encouraging memory and learning performance trials in patients with degenerative and or vascular dementia. One-year Phase III trials have revealed that propentofylline hindered the progression of dementia, while patients receiving placebo deteriorated markedly. The drug represents a new class of antidementia preparations, said Dr Labs. "On one hand, it promotes the neuroprotective effects of endogenous adenosine and on the other, it suppresses the production of neurotoxins in microglia cells of the brain," she noted.

Hoechst has particular hopes for its second dementia agent, besipirdine (formerly HP749). The agent is better tolerated than velnacrine and tacrine, and it stimulates not one but two neurotransmitters in the brain, acetylcholine and noradrenaline. Phase II trials of this agent at centers in Europe and the USA are complete, and analysis and publication of the data are expected by year-end, said Dr Labs. Other Phase II and Phase III trials are ongoing.