GE Healthcare and Eisai agree Alzheimer’s research alliance

GE Healthcare and Eisai have agreed a new collaboration to support a trial of a promising new therapy for Alzheimer's disease.

The agreement will see Eisai using GE Healthcare's investigational PET amyloid imaging agent [18F]flutemetamol to help select patients for an upcoming phase I clinical study of the investigational compound E2609.

An innovative beta-site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme inhibitor, the new compound helps prevent the accumulation of beta amyloid in the brain, a process that is believed to play a role in the degeneration of neurons.

Pascale Witz, president and chief executive officer of GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics, said: "This partnership may ultimately support the market entry of important therapies and potentially expedited time to market, because the right patients have been identified for participation in clinical trials."

This comes after Merck Sharp and Dohme also agreed to use [18F]flutemetamol in its own Alzheimer's disease drug trial through an agreement struck with GE Healthcare last year.