A NEW drug developed at Lancaster University that may help to prevent the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease is to enter clinical trials.

David Allsop, Professor of Neuroscience, and Dr Mark Taylor, from the Faculty of Health and Medicine, have developed a new drug which in laboratory tests reduces the number of senile plaques, which clump together in the brain leading to memory loss and confusion.

Lancaster University has filed a patent application for the drug and it will be progressing into clinical trials run by the north-west research company MAC Clinical Research.

If it passes regulatory hurdles, the ultimate aim is to give the drug to people with mild symptoms of memory loss.