Cambridge News Follow us on Tuesday 19 Feb 2013 3:06 AM A major disappointment has been announced today with the failure of Cogane as a drug to treat Parkinsons disease. Millions of pounds have gone into the development of the new treatment by Huntingdon-based Phytopharm, but results from a clinical trial have shown there was no improvement in the condition of Parkinsons patients taking part. There was great hope that Cogane could open a new treatment path for the disease, and early work on the drug was funded by The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinsons research. Roger Hickling, research and development director, told the News that the company would now have to take a long hard look at Cogane, which is also being developed to treat Alzheimers and motor neurone diseases, although Parkinsons was the programme furthest ahead. It is hugely disappointing, he said, and the proof of possibility is going to be a much higher hurdle to cross for Alzheimers and motor neurone disease now that Cogane has failed in Parkinsons. He added that the Parkinsons programme was the companys major asset. Phytopharm is based on the Ermine Business Park and employs 13 people. Cambridge Newspapers Ltd 2013 … Continue reading →

Deep brain stimulation using an electrical implant works better than drugs alone in earlier stages of disease Quality of life can improve by up to 26 per cent after op Speech and walking improved by average of 30 per cent By Jenny Hope PUBLISHED: 05:28 EST, 18 February 2013 | UPDATED: 05:41 EST, 18 February 2013 A new highly accurate form of brain surgery could bring hope to thousands of Parkinson's sufferers. A two-year trial shows deep brain stimulation using an electrical implant works better than drugs alone at a much earlier stage in the disease than previously found. There was a 26 per cent improvement in the quality of life for patients after surgery, compared with no improvement for those on drugs alone. Those who had the brain surgery took less medication and had fewer drug-related complications Coordination improved by 50 per cent, while activities such as speech, handwriting, dressing and walking improved by 30 per cent for those having the operation. They also took less medication and had fewer drug-related complications, while those on drugs alone had to increase the dose. The latest trial involving 251 patients in France and Germany gave deep brain stimulation to people who … Continue reading →

LONDON (ShareCast) - Shares in development stage pharmaceutical group Phytopharm (Other OTC: PHYOF - news) fell sharply on Monday after the company reported that a drug it has been developing to treat Parkinson's disease did not produce any improvements in patients' symptoms during a study. The company, which has been developing a treatment trademarked 'Cogane', published the results of a study of the drug on unmedicated patients with early stage Parkinson's disease. Analysis of the headline results indicated that Cogane had "no beneficial effects on patients' symptoms measured by the primary or secondary endpoints in the study", Phtopharm reported. More than 400 subjects with early-stage Parkinson's disease were randomly allocated to receive Cogane or a placebo which was taken orally once a day for up to 28 weeks. Three different dosages of Cogane were trialled on patients and measurements were taken during the study to determine the efficacy, safety and tolerability of each dose of Cogane. The company reported: "No statistically significant effects or trends towards improvement were seen in any of these endpoints. Analysis of the results indicates that the study was well conducted and gave a clear, albeit negative result." Professor C Warren Olanow, Professor of Neurology and … Continue reading →

Berne, Feb 18 (IANS) Tiny, ultra-flexible electrodes could be the answer to more successful treatment of Parkinson's, which afflicts an estimated seven to 10 million people worldwide. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), currently the standard practice in treating this condition, can involve long, expensive surgeries with dramatic side-effects. Its most common symptoms are tremors, stiff and aching muscles, slow limited movement, weakness of face and throat muscles and difficulty with walking. Philippe Renaud, professor from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) Switzerland, reports on soft arrays of miniature electrodes developed in his Microsystems Lab that open new possibilities for more accurate and local DBS. "Although Deep Brain Stimulation has been used for the past two decades, we see little progress in its clinical outcomes," Renaud says, according to an EPFL statement. "Microelectrodes have the potential to open new therapeutic routes, with more efficiency and fewer side-effects through a much better and finer control of electrical activation zones," added Renaud. The preliminary clinical trials bearing on this research are being done in conjunction with EPFL spin-off company Aleva Neurotherapeutics, the first in the world to introduce microelectrodes in DBS leading to more precise directional stimulation. These findings were presented at the … Continue reading →

LONDON (Reuters) - Phytopharm said its major drug hope for treating Parkinson's disease had failed in a clinical trial, the latest British biotech company to disappoint after showing early promise. Shares in Phytopharm fell more than 80 percent on Monday after it said its drug, Cogane, showed no benefit over placebo in the treatment of more than 400 patients with early-stage Parkinson's, a neurodegenerative disease. Chief Executive Tim Sharpington said he was disappointed. "Cogane had demonstrated encouraging efficacy in a wide range of industry standard pre-clinical models but this promise has not translated into clinically meaningful efficacy," he said. Phytopharm hoped its compounds had the potential to be a new class of therapy for neurodegenerative diseases, motor neuron disease and glaucoma. Cogane had demonstrated neuroprotective effects in preclinical models, the company had said, with indications that it could ease the symptoms and slow the progression of Parkinson's, a condition where part of the brain becomes more damaged over time. Phytopharm said on Monday it had halted all research and development spending while it reviewed its drugs pipeline. Its shares were trading down 82.25 percent by 4.14 a.m. ET, giving it a market value of just over 6 million pounds. Analyst … Continue reading →