Reducing the time, cost, and risk associated with clinical development of Alzheimer's treatments

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Perceptive Informatics, the industry's leading eClinical solutions provider and a subsidiary of PAREXEL International Corporation (Nasdaq: PRXL), announced that it has developed a robust medical imaging methodology for Central Nervous System (CNS) clinical trials involving Alzheimer's disease. The method, based on measuring ventricular size, provides a new approach to monitor brain atrophy in Alzheimer's disease and potential treatment effects. The technique was presented on April 26, 2009 in Seattle, Washington during an invitation-only meeting of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI).

The advantages of this method include providing higher quality, reproducible, and regulatory compliant assessments with the potential to help clinical trial sponsors make better and faster development decisions about Alzheimer's treatments in development. To develop this method, the Perceptive Informatics team collected Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans from the ADNI database using Perceptive's medical imaging system and regulatory compliant processes.

"It is more critical than ever that biopharmaceutical companies have the ability to make accurate go/no go decisions as early as possible for new compounds. Medical imaging is increasingly being used as a surrogate endpoint or biomarker of drug efficacy in all phases of CNS trials. With this new methodology, we believe that Perceptive's therapeutic area experts are able to help sponsors advance neuroimaging and bring important CNS treatments to patients sooner," said Kenneth G. Faulkner, Ph.D., Vice President of Medical Imaging, Perceptive Informatics. "Based on ADNI data, measuring ventricular change may be one of the most robust outcomes for imaging progression of Alzheimer's disease. Perceptive has developed a novel method of ventricular measurement that accurately reflects brain atrophy," said James Paskavitz, M.D., Medical Director, Perceptive Informatics. "We believe that this method can support sponsors in reducing the time, cost, and risk associated with clinical development of Alzheimer's treatments by providing medical image data that informs early phase decisions and is reproducible for later phase, multi-center trials."

The Perceptive Informatics Medical Imaging Group has helped to develop and validate novel surrogate endpoints for a variety of CNS disorders. Perceptive offers a range of capabilities in the application of imaging techniques from early clinical development through late phase studies. The medical imaging team operates globally and services a wide range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and metabolism/endocrinology imaging.

ADNI is focused on defining the rate of progress of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease, developing improved methods for clinical trials in this area, and providing a large database to improve design of treatment trials. A goal of ADNI is to provide information and methods to help lead to effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease, leading to effective prevention. ... http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

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