Baxter International’s Gammagard failed to help patients with Alzheimer’s disease in a late-stage study, adding to a string of failures to develop a treatment for the most common form of dementia.

Baxter will halt all studies of the therapy for mild to moderate forms of the disease and reconsider its Alzheimer’s programme, the Illinois company said in a statement yesterday.

Gammagard, or immunoglobulin, is currently used to replace antibodies in people with immune system disorders.

It is the third experimental Alzheimer’s drug to fail in less than a year.

Reisa Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said: “In terms of timing, this means we are several years away from getting anything on the market.” – (Bloomberg)