Bapineuzumab Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Has Side Effects

There is bad news for the experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug being jointly tested by Elan and Wyeth as it has been shown to have some serious health risks.

Furthermore, these health risks are amplified in people with a specific gene known as the ApoE4 gene.

In a study of the drug called bapineuzumab, it showed that when given to patients with a mild version of Alzheimer’s disease some of them developed a condition known as vasogenic edema which is characterized by a fluid build up in the brain.

Proving that the drug caused the side effect in patients with the gene, is the fact that in patients given the placebo, this nasty side effect was not present.

“Usually this occurred after the first or second dose,” Dr Ronald Black, assistant vice president in neuroscience research at Wyeth, said in an interview.

He went on to state that it appeared that the severity of the fluid build up depended on the amount of the drug that the patient received, with the more a patient got, the more fluid that built up on their brains.

Currently there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, which is a degenerative brain disease that is eventually fatal.