The Canadian biotech company Immune Network Ltd. said it expected to have results within a month on its phase II trial of its anti-inflammatory drug dapsone as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

A total of 201 Alzheimer patients were enrolled in the trial conducted in Brazil, Israel, Poland and South Africa.

A phase I study in Canada was halted a year ago due to an unexplained incidence of adverse findings in blood samples from healthy volunteers.

The company also announced that it has established a Clinical Advisory Team, of which the first members are Dr. Howard Feldman, Professor and Head of the University of British Columbia Division of Neurology, and Dr. Serge Gauthierm director of the Alzheimer Disease Research Unit at McGill University in Montreal.

The 52-week double-blind placebo controlled trial used as a primary endpoint the generally recognized "Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale" (ADAS-Cog). The efficacy of the drug will be measured by whether or not it changes the way the disease progresses over the year of treatment.

Other sources: Archives of Neurology