From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Sun Jan 27 2002 - 10:19:19 MST
[Blunderov]
Maybe this is old news but I thought I would send it along just in case.
Source: The Sunday Independent Jan 27 2002 (South Africa)
<quote>
Viagra for the brain: scientists design drugs that will halt memory loss.
Memory loss could soon become a thing of the past with drug companies
rushing to launch the first in a new wave of memory enhancing pills.
At least 12 American companies are understood to be in the final stages of
developing such drugs. The pills, which have been dubbed "Viagra for the
brain", are designed to halt or, at the very least, slow down memory loss in
middle aged and elderly people.
Experts predict that more sophisticated versions of the drugs capable of
blocking out bad memories or enhancing good ones will be available within
ten years.
The first company to market an effective and safe memory drug stands to make
billions from the aging populations in America and Europe.
Eric Kandel, 72, a professor at Columbia University in New York, was awarded
a Nobel prize in 2000 for his lifetimes work on memory. He believes we are
on the cusp of a revolution that will soon eradicate memory loss." We have
linked certain genes with memory loss and defined several drugs that would
reverse it," he said. "Within a year these drugs will be in clinical trials
and they will be on the market in three to five years."
Much of the pioneering work is being done by Memory Pharmaceuticals, a small
biotech company set up by Kandel in 1998. It's work focuses on finding
chemicals that help the neurons in the brain form stronger, longer lasting
connections, therefore minimising memory loss.
Small biotech companies are racing against the big drug companies -including
GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer and Merck-that are understood
to be already testing whether drugs for Alzheimer's which slow the
development of the condition- can be adapted to the mass market.
The ultimate prize is for the drug to be prescribed to people in their
forties whose memories are just beginning to dwindle.
Speaking to an American business magazine, the research chief of Novartis a
multinational drug firm said:" People in the industry are thinking about
it[a memory drug]. It would be a huge market, but the drugs would have to be
very safe."
Some have pointed out that people may not want to remember everything, but
Kandel is already beginning to think about the second generation of memory
drugs.
"For example we may have memory-suppressing drugs or drugs that enhance good
memories. You can develop drugs that act on different parts of the memory."
There are also fears that people could develop too much memory. Scientists
have had to consider the possibility that people's minds would clog up with
useless data that would block out pertinent information.- London Sunday
Times.
<quote>
Regards
Blunderov
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Sep 25 2002 - 13:28:41 MDT