J&J Will Seek FDA Approval by 2013 for Alzheimer’s Drug

Johnson & Johnson will seek U.S. regulatory approval of the experimental Alzheimer’s treatment bapineuzumab in 2012 or 2013, sticking with efforts to treat a disease where other drugmakers have failed.

J&J sees bapineuzumab as the “cornerstone” of its efforts to treat the brain-wasting disease, Husseini Manji, J&J’s global therapeutic area head for neuroscience, said at a company conference today. The drug has reduced the growth of plaques in the brain thought tied to the disease, Manji said at the meeting in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where J&J is based.