Healthcare Industry News: Alzheimer's
News Release - October 28, 2008
MDS Pharma Services Takes Novel Steps to Recruit Patients for Alzheimer’s Disease Study
To support on-time study start-up, medical personnel involved in the phase IIa study were encouraged to attend Memory Walks® to reach potential study participantsKING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., October 28, 2008 - (HSMN NewsFeed) - MDS Pharma Services, a leading provider of innovative drug-discovery and development solutions, took a novel approach to recruit Americans with Alzheimer's disease for The Kioku Study™, a phase IIa study for a drug being developed by Japan's Toyama Chemical Company Co., Ltd. to treat the brain disorder.
Dozens of medical practices across the United States are now recruiting hundreds of people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, a progressive and fatal disorder that robs victims of their memories, to take part in the study. In addition to using newspaper and broadcast ads, posters and brochures to recruit patients, MDS Pharma Services encouraged participating medical practices to attend local Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk® events (http://www.alz.org/memorywalk/) to distribute information about the study. These annual fundraisers are held every September and October as a prelude to National Alzheimer's Awareness Month in November.
Toyama and MDS Pharma Services chose the name, The Kioku StudyTM, because "kioku" means "memory" in Japanese.
"Patient recruitment can be a major impediment to on-time study startup and hitting subsequent project milestones," said MDS Pharma Services President David Spaight. "More than half of the dozens of medical practices participating in The Kioku Study™ made the commitment to attend their local Memory Walk® to raise awareness of the study, and reach out to people whose loved ones have the disease. This is Toyama's first late-stage clinical research project in the U.S., and we are committed to initiating the study on time with a full panel of qualified participants."
In preclinical studies, the drug prevented nerve cell death induced by neurotoxins and enhanced nerve growth; in animal tests, it improved spatial working memory. Phase I studies which involved more than 100 healthy young and elderly subjects, indicated that the drug could be further evaluated in patients. Patients are now being recruited for The Kioku Study™, a phase IIa study to assess the drug's tolerability, safety, and initial efficacy in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
More information about the study, including contact information for the participating medical practices, is available at www.KiokuStudy.com
About Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease, the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life, and eventually death. To learn more about Alzheimer's, go to the Alzheimer's Association Web site at www.alz.org.
About MDS Pharma Services
MDS Pharma Services is committed to delivering quality service on time. We offer a full spectrum of resources to meet the drug discovery and development needs of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. With numerous facilities strategically located around the world, we apply advanced scientific and technological expertise throughout the drug discovery and development process - from lead optimization, pre-IND research, early clinical research (bioequivalence, phases I-IIa) and bioanalysis through to global clinical development (phases IIb-IV), central lab and centralized cardiac services. For more information, visit our website at www.mdsps.com
MDS Pharma Services is a business unit of MDS Inc. (TSX: MDS; NYSE: MDZ), a global life sciences company that provides market-leading products and services that our customers need for the development of drugs and diagnosis and treatment of disease. We are a leading global provider of pharmaceutical contract research, medical isotopes for molecular imaging, radiotherapeutics, and analytical instruments. MDS has more than 5,500 highly skilled people in 29 countries. Find out more at www.mdsinc.com
Source: MDS Pharma Services
Issuer of this News Release is solely responsible for its
content.
Please address inquiries directly to the issuing company.
