The investigational drug memantine not only appears to improve memory in patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's, but provides a variety of daily living and functioning benefits for patients and time savings and cost benefits for their caregivers, according to researchers.

New data on four studies of memantine, a moderate-affinity, uncompetitive N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist that modulates glutamate levels, was released at the 8th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in Stockholm.

Swedish researchers reported that a study of 256 patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's showed that treatment with memantine reduced caregiver time on average by more than 50 hours a month, and reduced the costs of caregivers by more than $800 per month..

"The Alzheimer's patient caregiver faces physical, emotional, and financial challenges on a daily basis," said Dr. Anders Wimo of the Karolinska Institute. "We now have data suggesting a cost effective drug for patients in the advance stages of Alzheimer's disease, providing financial benefit and more spare time for caregivers."

Two other reports on preclinical research suggested that memantine may protect against the cell death observed in Alzheimer's, and may have the potential to slow the learning impairment caused by the accumulation of beta-amyloid in the brain.

Clinical data was also scheduled to be presented demonstrating memantine's ability to improve cognition in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease.

Forest Laboratories said it intends to submit a New Drug Application for memantine in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shortly.

Other sources: International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, Forest Laboratories