Bioibérica starts a trial with patients to evaluate the efficacy of its new compound to treat Alzheimer's Disease

The biotechnology company Bioibérica and theACE Foundation, Catalan Institute for Applied Neurosciences start a randomised, double-blind trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a new nutritional compound which could stop memory loss in patients with mild phase Alzheimer's disease.

The compound is called PRJ212, of animal origin, which contains different characterised bioactive principal agents, developed entirely by researchers from Bioibérica. Ten pre-clinical studies have shown that it has an important role in stopping the progression of Alzheimer's and, specifically, the studies have shown that taking the compound confers a significant level of protection against the cognitive deterioration characteristic of the disease.

“We have observed that this compound preserves different types of memories thanks to a novel neuro-protection mechanism which, therefore, could be capable of preventing memory loss in patients in the mild phase”, declared Daniel Martínez, the R+D director of Bioibérica's Human Health Division and the project lead, who added: “This effect on neuronal protection does not only translate to improvements in memory. Improvements have also been detected in other aspects associated with ageing such as the hearing loss, for example”.

Bioibérica's goal is to launch a “medical food” onto the market, a food product for specific medical purposes which, when taken regularly, helps to prevent memory loss in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. “Numerous epidemiological studies indicate that nutrition has an important role in the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease, and that diet-related environmental factors can be corrected through nutritional intervention, thus influencing the course of the disease”, explained Martínez.

“Bioibérica wants to become a benchmark in prescription medical nutrition and as such we are developing new medical food products, not only for Alzheimer's disease but also for other therapeutic areas. We know that this is an innovative approach but we are convinced that the nutritional approach to some diseases, apart from being effective, can also be efficient, easy to implement and very safe”, declared José Escaich, CEO of Bioibérica.

The principal researcher of the study in Spain will be Dr. Mercè Boada, neurologist and medical director of the ACE Foundation, which has actively collaborated in the study design. This is the first of three trials that Bioibérica expects to start this year. The other two, which will take place in Europe and the United States, are in the approval phase.

More than 35 million people in the world suffer from some type of dementia, which Alzheimer's disease being the most common. It is estimated that more than one and a half million people suffer from this disease in Spain. This figure could double by 2030.