Elan and Wyeth Announce Results from Phase IIa Clinical Trial of AN-1792

"Although dosing with AN-1792 was halted in January 2002 after reports of encephalitis in a subset of patients: , the trial remained blinded and the patients were followed in the study until December 2002.
While clinical development of AN-1792 has been terminated, the results presented today support the beta amyloid immunotherapy approach, which is thought to treat Alzheimer's disease using an immunologic approach to clear beta amyloid from the brain. The results include less worsening on a neuropsychological test battery, including the memory component at 12 months in patients who developed an antibody response to AN-1792 compared to the placebo group. In addition, in three autopsy examinations of patients treated with AN-1792, reduction of beta amyloid plaque was observed. "