GE Healthcare Presents Positive Phase 2 Data with Flutemetamol - Phase 3 Program Now Underway
By Ge Healthcare, PRNEThursday, April 8, 2010
TORONTO, April 9, 2010 - GE Healthcare will today present results from its multicenter phase 2
study of flutemetamol at the 4th annual Human Amyloid Imaging (HAI) Meeting
in Toronto, Canada. Flutemetamol is a positron emission tomography (PET)
imaging agent in development by GE Healthcare, in the field of brain imaging.
The purpose of the phase 2 study was to investigate the efficacy of
flutemetamol in differentiating between patients with clinically probable
Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cognitively intact healthy volunteers (HVs). In
the study, subjects with a high probability of amyloid (27 AD patients) and a
low probability of amyloid (25 healthy subjects) underwent PET imaging with
flutemetamol. Five independent image readers, each blinded to the patient
diagnosis, separately decided if each subject's image was normal or abnormal.
The accuracy of image assessments was determined by comparing them to the
subjects' diagnoses. In addition, 20 subjects with a memory disorder known as
mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which may represent early AD, were enrolled
and imaged with flutemetamol.
"The availability of a tool such as [18F] Flutemetamol to identify
amyloid in life could bring tremendous benefits to the field of Alzheimer's
disease," said William E. Klunk, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and
Neurology, University of Pittsburgh. "Increasing focus on the early diagnosis
of this devastating disease and PET imaging might offer an opportunity to
contribute to the knowledge base of the physician as we strive to progress
novel treatment and management regimes for our patients."
The flutemetamol phase 3 trial program is a series of multicenter studies
that include patients who consent to brain biopsy or to post-mortem assays to
determine the level of association between imaging detection and
histopathology findings, as well as patients with MCI who may progress to AD.
The trials have already commenced with recruitment and imaging of patients at
multiple sites in the USA and Europe.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services
that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical
imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring
systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies,
performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers
to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In
addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global
policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable
healthcare systems.
Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join
us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing
costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the
world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a US$17 billion
unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs
more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and
their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE
Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
Nicole Nixon, JFK Communications, Inc. for GE Healthcare, +1-609-514-5117, nnixon at jfkhealth.com
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