Irvine’s Cortex Completes 1st Phase of Testing on Alzheimer’s Drug

IRVINE —  Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., which develops drugs for age-related diseases and disorders, said Wednesday that it has completed the first phase of clinical trials on a drug aimed at treating memory loss in Alzheimer’s patients.

The first-phase study of its Ampalex drug, the first time that a new class of pharmaceuticals Cortex calls Ampakines has been given to humans, produced “positive results” that indicated it was both safe and effective, said Alan A. Steigrod, Cortex president. The study was conducted on 48 healthy humans under the supervision of a professor at a university in Berlin, Germany.

The Irvine company now will try to form an alliance with a larger pharmaceutical company that can provide the financing Cortex needs to start the second phase of its clinical trials, Steigrod said.

Ampakines specifically enhance the functioning of a group of brain proteins believed to be critical for the formation of certain types of memory.