New Alzheimer's treatment is proven ineffective

Much to the disappointment of many Alzheimer's patients and their loved ones, Canadian and international pharmacies won't be selling the intravenous form of bapineuzumab anytime soon.

It was hoped, especially by international medical goods company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer Inc. who co-sponsored the research, that the drug would be the first of its kind to arrest the advancement of Alzheimer's, according to Reuters.

The news source states that the test results show that the drug proved about as effective at combating Alzheimer's as placebos in subjects with mild-to-moderate forms of the condition, unless they had a specific gene.

Reuters spoke to a handful of scientists who said they never expected these clinical trials to succeed, believing that Alzheimer's should be targeted at its very early stages in order to halt the rate of mental deterioration. In an e-mail to the news source, one Alzheimer's expert wrote that he "would have loved to have been pleasantly surprised and wrong."

"These studies are terribly important for us to learn about Alzheimer's disease, and that part of the process is just starting as the data continues to be crunched in a variety of ways," said William Thies, chief scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association, quoted by Reuters.

Information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that the exact cause of Alzheimer's is unknown, but old age and a family history of the disease enhance the risk. According to the CDC, 5.4 million Americans suffer from this condition, which is twice the number from 30 years ago. By 2050, the CDC expects the disease to afflict 16 million Americans.