Test Results Promising for Alzheimer’s Drug: In...

Test Results Promising for Alzheimer’s Drug: In a small victory for Orange County champions of collaborations between local academicians and the business community, Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday announced promising research results with an experimental drug that it hopes to market some day as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

The small Irvine development company, using technology licensed by UC Irvine, said a human test in Germany indicated that volunteers who took its drug Ampalex experienced less memory loss of nonsense syllables they’d been asked to memorize than than those given a placebo.

Though years of additional testing will be required before Cortex can apply for federal approval to market the drug, Alan Steigrod, Cortex’s president and chief executive, noted that the initial test suggested that Ampalex is both effective and safe.

The test was administered to 48 healthy young people. Results of a similar test among elderly individuals have yet to be evaluated. Further testing on Alzheimer’s patients is planned.