Memantine captures US market

Few weeks after being available

Frankfurt am Main, February 20th, 2004 – Namenda’s success is a reflection of an unmet need in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease in the United States. In Europe, memantine (Axura®) is established since May 2002 in the same indication.

Memantine has been available in the US under the brand name Namenda™ since January 2004. Now, 40,000 new patients are already being treated with memantine. The weekly new prescription market share for the NMDA-antagonist for Alzheimer patients was more than 17% by the end of January, and is still going up.

There is a likely reason for this success: The new antidementia medication closes a therapeutic gap – in the United States just as in Europe: It is the first and only approved treatment for patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are only approved for mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, memantine is also the only medication acting on glutamatergic neurotransmission in Alzheimer’s disease: in addition to the symptomatic benefit, it also has a potentially neuroprotective effect.

The clinical efficacy of Axura® for patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease was verified by Reisberg et al. in a major study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003: After 28 weeks memantine demonstrated a statistically significant benefit compared to placebo on three independent levels: clinical global impression, cognition and activities of daily living.

It was also shown in a recent study that less memantine-treated patients as compared to placebo-treated patients were institutionalized and that significantly less care was necessary in memantine-treated patients. Therefore, memantine reduces the burden on caregivers and relatives.