A new medicine for Alzheimer's disease?

Introducing a breakthrough known as 'CT1812'

Just last week, a substance being developed for Alzheimer’s disease known as “CT1812” was placed on the fast track by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – a process designed to speed up the review of drugs that fill an unmet medical need, with the purpose of getting them to patients earlier. 

What is CT1812 and what are the results so far?

CT1812 is an orally administered substance designed to decrease the brain degeneration of Alzheimer’s disease caused by toxic proteins called amyloid beta. When tested on rats it appeared to not only stop disease progression but also reverse memory loss. 

So far, two human trials have been conducted in Australia. The first one tested the substance’s safety and tolerability, and were presented last year by the developing company, Cognition Therapeutics. Results showed that single doses of up to 1,120 mg and multiple doses of up to 840 mg were well tolerated in healthy patients.The preliminary results of the second trial tested adults with mild to moderate Alzheimer's Disease and will be presented at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s disease conference in Boston on 1–4 November. 

Will people with Alzheimer’s disease be able to access this medicine anytime soon?

This treatment is still in its very early stages of development – it’s not even technically classified as a medicine yet, which is why it doesn’t even have a name, just a number – so it still needs to be tested more thoroughly before it can be made available to treat people. Most medicines go through four phases of human clinical trials before they can then be submitted for a country approval. CT1812 is now in phase 1–2.

Then why is this news causing such a stir?

Unfortunately there aren’t many medicines available for Alzheimer’s disease, which affects a whopping 47 million people worldwide, and so any developments in potential new medicines for this disease could have a significant impact. The FDA recognises this, which is why it has given CT1812 ‘fast track’ status, aiming to review the potential new drug and if it’s found to be effective, approve it more quickly.   

One thing’s for sure – we’ll be following the development of C1812, and if it does get approved, we’ll be working hard to source and deliver it, so that patients living in the rest of the world can also be treated with it as quickly as possible.