Japan Starts Final-Stage Trial for iPS Drug for Alzheimer's

   Kyoto, June 3 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese team said Tuesday that it has started a final-stage clinical trial to administer to patients with familial Alzheimer's disease a drug discovered through induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells.
   This is the first final-stage trial conducted in the field of iPS drug discovery, which uses iPS cells to discover new efficacies of new and existing drugs, according to the team.
   The team includes members of Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, or CiRA, and Towa Pharmaceutical Co., which makes and sells generic drugs.
   Through the trial, which began in May, the team aims to confirm the safety and efficacy of the treatment, in hopes of obtaining regulatory approval.
   In 2017, CiRA professor Haruhisa Inoue and others carried out an investigation to find a compound that reduces amyloid beta, which causes Alzheimer's disease, by using iPS cells.

(2025/06/03-22:14)