Predicting when new drugs come to market in the United States has never been an exact science, and it has become even harder since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts told UPI. But some drugs on the horizon have the potential to make a major impact.

AB Science is initiating a Phase 3 trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of its candidate therapy masitinib in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Biopharmaceutical company Axsome Therapeutics Inc. (AXSM:NASDAQ), which is focused on developing new medicines for use in the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders, today announced that "AXS-05, a novel, oral, investigational NMDA receptor antagonist with multimodal activity, met the primary and key secondary endpoints in the ACCORD (Assessing Clinical Outcomes in Alzheimer's Disease Agitation) Phase 3 trial, by substantially and statistically significantly delaying the time to relapse and preventing relapse of agitation in patients with Alzheimer's disease, as compared to placebo."

Newly announced findings from the phase 3 ACCORD trial (NCT04797715) showed that AXS-05 (Axsome Therapeutics), a novel, investigational n-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, met its primary end point of statistically significant delay in time to relapse and preventing relapse of agitation in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) agitation.1

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that leads to brain atrophy and death of its cells. It is the most common cause of dementia. It leads to a persistent decrease in the ability to think, and in behavioral and social skills; This limits a person’s ability to live independently.

Drugmakers Biogen and Eisai say their experimental drug lecanemab slowed the progress of Alzheimer’s disease in a large human study the companies did.