Shire: Easy dose it

Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc believes that the high rate of nausea, vomiting and withdrawals in a Phase III trial of its Reminyl galantamine to treat mixed dementia will not affect physician prescribing habits for the product's marketed Alzheimer's disease indication. The company said the mixed dementia trial used a different dosing schedule than the one used for AD, which likely was responsible for the high dropout rate.

Reminyl, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and nicotinic receptor modulator, is marketed in Europe to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD), and is approvable for the indication in the U.S. and Canada. But while AD leads to dementia, SHP said that cerebrovascular disease also causes vascular dementia, the second most common type of dementia...