Study Shows Drug May Help Alzheimer's Patients A drug already on the market to treat immune disorders may help stabilize patients with Alzheimer's disease for up to three years, according to the results of a tiny study presented at a conference on Tuesday. All four patients who received the maximum dose of the drug, Gammagard from Baxter International, had no decline in several measures of cognition and daily function for three years, researchers said. Dr. Norman Relkin of Weill Cornell Medical College, the lead investigator of the study, said the results were "remarkable" because patients with Alzheimer's disease typically worsen within 12 months. "If we have a patient who goes 18 months without changing we begin to doubt they have Alzheimer's," Dr. Relkin said in a news conference at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Vancouver, where the results were presented. But some experts not involved in the trial said it was premature to conclude that the drug was responsible for the stabilization. "There will be some patients who at three years don't have a decline" even without an experimental therapy, said Dr. Rachelle S. Doody, director of the Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center at Baylor College of Medicine. She said some patients go six or eight years without their condition worsening. Dr. Samuel Gandy, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, said the results left him "optimistic to a minor degree, not really gushing." Whether the results are fluke or not could be known by early next year, when the results of a larger, phase 3, clinical trial are expected. The results presented Tuesday were from an extension of a 24-patient trial begun some years ago. In the first six months of the study, those who received the drug did better than those who received placebo. After that, patients could continue on the study, with all of them receiving the drug. Sixteen of the patients completed three years of treatment. The five of those who originally received placebo declined less rapidly once they shifted to the drug. Of the 11 who received the drug for the entire 36 months, those who got the highest dose for the whole time fared the best. That evidence "really suggests this is a drug effect and not just an accident," said Bill Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association. Baxter's shares rose 93 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $55.68. Gammagard is a brand of intravenous immune globulin, or IVIG. Such products, which are also sold by several other companies, are collections of antibodies from healthy people that are harvested from donated blood plasma. IVIG is used mainly to treat fairly rare immune system deficiencies. It is not clear why IVIG would work against Alzheimer's. Some evidence suggests that some of the antibodies in IVIG block beta amyloid, a protein thought to be a cause of Alzheimer's. Some evidence points to a general anti-inflammatory effect of IVIG. Because of the earlier results from the Gammagard study, some patients with Alzheimer's disease are already using IVIG off label. Doctors are allowed to prescribe an approved drug for a non-approved use. "I have a handful of patients who are doing it," Dr. Gandy said. But he and others said the practice was not widespread, in part because the treatment costs thousands of dollars a month and insurers typically do not reimburse for off-label uses. Treatment requires intravenous infusions every two weeks or so and can cause fever and chills and blood clotting problems.