The world’s first transdermal patch for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) will offer patients an improved treatment delivery choice and could lead to more patients taking their medication. The patch, being jointly developed by Ono Pharmaceutical and the Japanese unit of Novartis, is currently in phase II clinical trials in Japan, where the companies hope to bring it to market as soon as possible.

The drug is already sold as Exelon (rivastigmine), in capsule or liquid form, in more than 70 countries worldwide, claims a company release.

However, the patch will offer a novel drug delivery alternative for elderly dementia patients who do not take their medication because they either have difficulty swallowing or are non-cooperative in taking their medication.

Alzheimers disease, an incurable and fatal brain disease, is the most common type of dementia in developed Western countries, affecting approximately 20 million people worldwide.

The class of drugs most commonly used to treat and prolong the symptoms of AD is called acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AchI). This market has been dominated by Pfizer's Aricept (donepezil), which holds over 50 per cent of the global market. Novartis's Exelon and Ortho-McNeil's Razadyne/Reminyl (galantamine) share the remainder.

The worldwide Alzheimer's disease therapeutics market is estimated to grow 11 per cent each year from $1.79 billion in 2004 to approximately $3.05 billion in 2009 and during this time AchIs will continue to dominate the market.

According to the release, if this drug patch can improve patients taking their medication, it has the potential to play a part in also improving the quality of life of patients and their caregivers and could lead to significant cost savings to society.

It is important for patients to regularly take their AchI medication, as studies suggest that continual treatment can slow cognitive decline, reduce the amount of caregiver time a patient may need, and can increase the time until a patient needs to be institutionalised.

The annual total costs in the EU for AD have been estimated to be between €64 and €149 billion, and further estimates reveal that as much as €1,660 per patient could be saved for each month that institutionalisation is delayed, according to a report in the British Medical Journal, 2003.