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October 24, 2001
Neurochem announces clinical advisory board for promising Alzheimer's therapeutic
Distinguished International Experts Help Advance Alzhemed™ Program
Neurochem Inc. (TSX : NRM) is pleased to announce today the appointment of an outstanding
group of clinical physicians and scientists to its Clinical Advisory Board (CAB) for
Alzhemed™, a lead drug candidate for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. Neurochem has
designed and developed the orally-available Alzhemed™ from its core technology platform.
Neurochem owns the global, commercial and scientific rights to Alzhemed™ and intends to
accelerate the clinical development program for this lead drug candidate. The experienced
members of the CAB will be advising the Company in the design and implementation of upcoming
clinical trials for the efficacy assessment of Alzhemed™ in the fight against brain
amyloid deposition associated with this widespread and devastating disease.
The Alzhemed™ Clinical Advisory Board will include:
(please see below for more complete biographical information)
Dr. Howard Chertkow, MD, FRCB(C), Co-Director of the McGill/Jewish General Hospital
Memory Clinic and Director of the Bloomfield Centre for Research in Aging at the Lady Davis
Institute in Montreal, Canada. He is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at
McGill University and the President of the Consortium of Canadian Centres for Clinical
Cognitive Research (C5R).
Dr. Steven H. Ferris, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry at New York University (NYU)
School of Medicine, the Executive Director of NYU's Silberstein Aging and Dementia Research
Center and a Principal Investigator of the National Institute for Aging-supported Alzheimer's
Disease Center in New York, USA.
Dr. Serge G. Gauthier, MD, Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Psychiatry,
Medicine and an Associate Member of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University and
is a Member of the Douglas Hospital Research Center in Montreal, Canada.
Dr. Michael Grundman, MD, MPH, Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Disease
Cooperative Study and an Associate Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California
in San Diego, USA.
Professor Simon Lovestone, MPhil, PhD, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the Institute
of Psychiatry, King's College Hospital in London, United Kingdom.
Dr. John C. Morris, MD, Professor of Neurology, Pathology & Immunology, the Director
of the Memory and Aging Project, The Memory Diagnostic Center and the Center for Aging and
the Co-Director of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center at Washington University, St. Louis,
USA.
Dr. Bruno Vellas, MD, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Toulouse
University Hospital, Toulouse, France. He is Chief of the Acute Care Unit for Alzheimer's
patients and the Principal Investigator of the European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium.
"We are proud to have assembled such a distinguished Clinical Advisory Board comprised
of some of the world's most respected and experienced experts in the field of Alzheimer's
Disease, Neurology, and clinical design, who will help advance Neurochem's Alzheimer's Disease
program," said Dr. Louis R. Lamontagne, President and CEO of Neurochem. "The first
meeting of the Clinical Advisory Board is planned for the beginning of 2002, which, given
the demanding schedules of our advisory board members, demonstrates their interest and
enthusiasm in advancing this promising therapeutic," he added.
To initiate a Phase II clinical trial for Alzhemed™, the Company plans to submit an
Investigational New Drug Application to the Food and Drug Administration in the United States
and to the Therapeutic Products Programme in Canada in the first half of 2002. While
dedicating its own financial resources to the program, the Company is grateful to the
Government of Canada Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC), which awarded Neurochem in
January 2000, an investment contribution of $7.9 million towards the advancement of
Alzhemed™.
About Neurochem
Neurochem is an industry leader in the development of therapeutic drugs and diagnostic tools
for central nervous system and amyloid-related diseases associated with aging. The Company
has developed a novel, proprietary series of compounds that inhibit the formation, deposition
and toxic effects of amyloid fibrils within the body. Neurochem's research and clinical teams
are best known for their development of therapeutic and diagnostic drug candidates for
amyloid-related diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease, Secondary Amyloidosis, Diabetes Type
II and Hemorrhagic Stroke (due to Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy). Neurochem is using a
multi-pronged approach towards the development of pharmaceuticals for Alzheimer's Disease,
including a vaccine, and has to date advanced three drug candidates to clinical trials:
Alzhemed™, for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, Fibrillex™, for the orphan
disease Secondary Amyloidosis, and Cerebril™, for Hemorrhagic Stroke. At present,
the Company employs over 70 people and is located in Saint-Laurent, Canada
(www.neurochem.com).
All of the statements contained in this news release, other than statements of fact which
are independently verifiable at the date hereof, are forward-looking statements. Such
statements, based as they are on the current expectations of management, inherently involve
numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. Some examples of known risks are: the
impact of general economic conditions, general conditions in the pharmaceutical industry, changes
in the regulatory environment in the jurisdictions in which Neurochem does business, stock
market volatility, fluctuations in costs, and changes to the competitive environment due to
consolidation or otherwise. Consequently, actual future results may differ materially from
the anticipated results expressed in the forward-looking statements.
For further Information, please contact:
Dr. Lise Hébert
Vice President, Corporate Communications
lhebert@neurochem.com
275 Armand-Frappier
Laval (Quebec)
H7V 4A7
Tel: (450) 680-4500
Fax: (450) 680-4501
Alzhemed™ Clinical Advisory Board
Howard Chertkow, MD, FRCP (C) is a Cognitive Neurologist in the Department of Clinical
Neurosciences at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital and an Associate Professor
in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He is
Co-Director of the McGill University/Jewish General Hospital Memory Clinic and the Director
of the Bloomfield Centre for Research in Aging, a multi-disciplinary group of fundamental and
clinical researchers based at the Lady Davis Research Institute. Dr. Chertkow is the President
of the Consortium of Canadian Centres for Clinical Cognitive Research (C5R) and the
Coordinator of the Quebec Consortium for Alzheimer Disease (AD) Research. His research
interests include "cognitive neuroscience", early diagnosis and prediction of AD,
focussing on the stage of Mild Cognitive Impairment.
Steven H. Ferris, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at New York University (NYU)
School of Medicine, the Executive Director of NYU's Silberstein Aging and Dementia Research
Center and a Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Aging-supported Alzheimer's
Disease Center. He has been studying aging and Alzheimer's Disease for more than twenty-five
years with more than 250 publications in the field. He is the Associate Editor-in-Chief of
Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders and is a member of the Medical and Scientific
Affairs Council of the national Alzheimer's Association. He has been a member (1987-1992)
of the Food and Drug Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee
which reviews new drugs for Alzheimer's Disease.
Serge G. Gauthier, MD, is a Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Psychiatry and
Medicine at McGill University. He is a Senior Scientist at the Industry Programs Branch of the
Canadian Institute of Health Research and an Associate Member of the Institut Universitaire
de Gériatrie at the Université de Montréal. His research interests
include dementia, vascular dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and epidemiology. His
participation in committees and boards include the C5R Executive Committee (Chair), the
International Working Group on Harmonization of Dementia Drug Guidelines (Steering Committee/ADL
subcommittee (Chair)), the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute and the World Federation
of Neurology Workgroup on Dementia.
Michael Grundman, MD, MPH, is the Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative
Study and an Associate Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California in San
Diego, USA. Dr. Grundman is a specialist on Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment.
He is also a member of the Food and Drug Administration's Peripheral and Central Nervous
System Advisory Committee.
John C. Morris, MD, is the Director of the Memory and Aging Project, The Memory
Diagnostic Center and the Center for Aging, a Professor of Neurology, Pathology & Immunology
and Co-Director of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center at Washington University, St. Louis,
USA. Dr. Morris is Editor-in-Chief of Alzheimer's Disease and Associated Disorders and serves
on the editorial board of The Neurologist. He is a Director of the Alzheimer's Association in
Chicago, Illinois, and has completed a term (1996-2000) as a member (Chair 1999-2000) of the
Neuroscience of Aging Review Committee for the National Institute of Aging, Bethesda, Maryland,
USA. His current research involves clinicopathological studies of aging and dementia, with a
focus on early-stage Alzheimer's Disease. He serves on many scientific and community advisory
boards and is a member of numerous professional societies.
Simon Lovestone, MPhil, PhD, is a Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the Institute of
Psychiatry, King's College Hospital in London, United Kingdom. He heads up a multi-disciplinary
Old Age Psychiatry clinical team and has clinical interests in dementia and in genetic
counseling. His research interests concentrate on understanding the molecular and cellular
events as well as the genetics and proteomics of late onset Alzheimer's Disease. His research
is sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, the Alzheimer's Research Trust,
the Alzheimer's Society and Research into Aging.
Bruno Vellas, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the
Toulouse University Hospital, Toulouse, France. He is Chief of the Acute Care Unit for
Alzheimer's Disease patients and the Principal Investigator of the European Alzheimer's Disease
Consortium (A European Commission Funded Study). He is Editor-in-Chief of Research and
Practice in Alzheimer's Disease. For more than ten years now he has been involved in several
studies on Alzheimer's Disease. He developed and validated the M.N.A (Mini Nutritional
Assessment) as well as The European Funded Program on Nutrition Health Promotion and
Alzheimer's Disease.
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