Yesterday, Prana Biotechnology announced that the company had received a recommendation that it should proceed as planned in its IMAGINE clinical trial (using PBT2) for Alzheimer’s. This recommendation came from the Data Safety Monitoring Board, an independent review group for clinical trials.

Prana is focused on commercializing research in age-related neurodegenerative disorders, and the discovery of its technology has been contributed by researchers from such institutes as The University of Melbourne, The Mental Health Research Institute (Melbourne), and Massachusetts General Hospital (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School).

In IMAGINE, a double-blind placebo controlled trial is being used to test the effects of PBT2 on specific areas of the brain in Alzheimer’s patients, including its effect on amyloid deposits in the brain (using PiB-PET scanning) and effects on increasing brain activity (FDG PET). A previous trial of PBT2 showed an improvement in the cognition of Alzheimer’s patients. Prana hopes that the testing will prove PBT2 is a safe treatment for the disease.

In addition to the IMAGINE test, Prana is conducting a separate six month PBT2 trial in 100 patients with early to mid-stage Huntington disease; the company is anticipating PBT2 will also benefit Huntington patients the same way it benefits Alzheimer’s patients.

For further information, please visit www.pranabio.com

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