Samuel Gershon: The Tacrine paradigm

Samuel Gershon’s reply to Hector Warnes’ comment

        Thanks for your comments on my remarks on Tacrine. The fact that this compound or other cholinesterase inhibitors may still be marketed and used in some countries under many different names, however, does not change the fact that Tacrine was originally marketed in the US, and other places as well, originally on the claim that FDA approved it for or the treatment of established Alzheimer’s dementia - it had to be withdrawn from the US market for making this claim.

        Furthermore, with persistence and some additional studies, the patent holders
resubmitted with a modified claim that Tacrine would SLOW the rate of mental decline in patients compared to placebo. Yet, after another interval these findings again could not be replicated. So, the fact that these and similar pharmacological compounds can still be marketed and used anywhere else in the world to treat millions of other patients does not change the simple fact  that they are NOT effective for this indication.

        Using such claims for their efficacy does not help the advance of scientific work in this field.

January 28, 2021