Cuba continues clinical trial in Alzheimer's patients

 HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 29 (ACN) The Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) is organizing, along with the Cuban public health ministry, the logistics and health personnel for Phase III and IV clinical trials with the drug NeuroEpo in Alzheimer's patients.

The biotechnological product received in March a conditional sanitary registration for the indication of mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease, due to the results of the Phase II/III clinical trial conducted in 174 patients, evidence that was presented as part of the BioHabana 2022 International Congress.

Kalet Leon Monzon, deputy general director of research and development of the CIM, told the Cuban News Agency that the results surpassed the hypothesis and the compound proved to be safe.

He detailed that in around 80 % of the patients treated with NeuroEpo the disease did not progress during one year, and approximately 50 % improved with respect to when they started the treatment.

Among the novel elements of the research, he pointed out that a drug (donepezil) of those currently used in the world will be acquired, which will be included in one of the treatment branches in order to compare its results with NeuroEpo.

Leon Monzon, referring to research abroad, said that they are planning a trial in Canada, which will allow obtaining external data endorsed by the international community, will make it possible to insert the medicine in the context of the medical practice of patients who receive other treatments and to have access to technologies that are not available in the country.

In the world there is no effective drug against the disease and the current medications are focused on controlling the symptoms, hence the relevance and the great challenge of the Cuban product, he added.

NeuroEpo is a nasal formulation of recombinant Erythropoietin (EPO) with a low content of sialic acid, an isoform with a composition similar to the natural EPO produced in the central nervous system.