Johnson & Johnson Alzheimer's Med Cut Chemical Tied to Brain Tangles

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) (JNJ) and Pfizer Inc.’s experimental Alzheimer’s medicine may reduce the development of tau tangles in the brain, a hallmark trait of the degenerative condition, a small study suggested. More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, a disease marked by the buildup of amyloid plaque and snarls of the tau protein. The drug bapineuzumab is being jointly developed by J&J and Pfizer to attack the disorder. The study, reported in the Archives of Neurology, is the first to suggest it may work on the tau side of the disease. While the data showed no difference in beta amyloid levels, the drug reduced levels of a two forms of tau, according to the researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.