Drug Companies Join Forces Against Alzheimer’s

Two drug companies announced Monday they are forming a new partnership to jointly research and develop drugs designed to slow or stop Alzheimer’s disease.

Boehringer Ingelheim, a German company, and Vitae Pharmaceuticals of Fort Washington, Pa. said they will work together on drugs that block an enzyme called beta secretase (BACE), which is blamed for creating amyloid-beta plagues that are suspected of building up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

Experiments on laboratory mice have shown that deleting the enzyme can prevent the peptide from forming in the brain, reducing the risks of memory loss, officials said.

Alzheimer’s is the most common type of adult dementia in the United States. As many as 4.5 million people in the U.S, and about 30 million worldwide suffer from the chronic neurodegenerative disorder, which causes memory loss and reduced mental functioning.

Drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s accounted for about $5 billion in sales in 2008 and are expected to continue to climb as the world’s population grows older. Total sales of Alzheimer’s drugs could reach $14 billion by 2015, according to the companies.

Currently, most Alzheimer’s therapies focus on improving symptoms without slowing the progression of the disease.

Boehringer is the world’s 15th-largest drug maker, while Vitae a smaller company that focuses on development-stage pharmaceutical research.

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