Trial on the efficacy of a drug against Alzheimer advances in Cuba

Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, Aug 17 (Prensa Latina) The phase III clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the neuroprotective drug NeuralCIM in patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer's amnestic variant is progressing positively today in this central province of Cuba.

August 17, 2023
16:19

As Prensa Latina learned, there are two studies that have been carried out since last February, one in Havana and another that includes some 1,500 people in the rest of the national territory, the objective is the same, although each one has its own characteristics. According to the coordinators in Sancti Spíritus, the program began with a limit of patients -about 60- and increases selectively after an assessment of those who suffer from this condition by neurologists, geriatricians and psychologists at the Camilo Cienfuegos General Provincial Hospital.

The strategy is to increase and confirm all the information on the effectiveness and confidence to obtain the definitive registration of the drug by the Center for the State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (Cecmed).

In March of last year, after evaluating the documentation presented by the Molecular Immunology Center, this center granted NeuralCim conditional health registration, a hope for an increasingly aging Cuban population.

The scientific evaluations carried out have shown that NeuralCim has fewer side effects than other medicines offered internationally, stops cognitive deterioration and improves quality of life over time.

Studies in the country estimate that around 170,000 people suffer from Alzheimer’s, a disease that is the leading cause of dementia worldwide, with a prevalence between five and 10 percent in people over 65 years of age.

Sancti Spíritus is among the provinces with the highest number of long-lived people -more than 60 years- along with Villa Clara and Havana, where 23.3 percent of its inhabitants are elderly, while the birth rate decreases.

Imey Hernández, director of the Department of Demography, pointed out that the municipalities of Fomento, Yaguajay and Cabaiguán, with more than 25 percent of elderly people, are among the oldest in the territory together with other similar ones in Cuba.

According to statistical data at the end of last year, more than 22 percent of the Cuban population was over 60 years of age.

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