Back to Living a Normal Life: Howard Ulene "so much better" with help of experimental Alzheimer's drug

After almost two years on experimental Alzheimer's drug MPC-7869—later revealed to be Flurizan—Howard Ulene says his memory has improved, and while it's not perfect, life is "so much better."

"Before the drug, I would misspeak, I would forget, I'd get confused," says Ulene, 77, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's four years ago. "I couldn't count on myself because I never knew when a blank would occur. They came so suddenly, without warning.

"This is a disease," he says, "that eats you alive."

After he learned that the University of California at Irvine—a 10-minute drive from his home—was conducting a clinical trial for a new drug, his wife, Sally, agreed to enroll him.

"Howard is a very bright, articulate man who was a successful entrepreneur," she says. "He is so bright that for a while he was very good at hiding his symptoms. But it got to the point where he was forgetting the names of his grandchildren."

As is typical of these trials, the Ulenes didn't know whether Howard was getting a drug or a placebo. But he and his family say that as the months passed, the improvement was unequivocal.

"I started to feel more like myself," Howard says. "I could tell I wasn't making the same slips."

His wife agrees. "Faced with a number of choices, like a menu, Howard gets a bit confused. But on the whole, he is doing much better," Sally says. "He's living a normal life." Howard makes his breakfast, reads newspapers, goes out to dinner with friends and plays with his grandchildren.

After 18 months, the study called for him to go off the drug for five weeks, and he immediately began to regress. He was confused, depressed. "I was really worried," Sally says. Now, Howard is back on Flurizan, which will be available to him for at least two more years.

"This drug has been wonderful, and we just hope it continues to let him hold his own against the disease," Sally says. "We hope that for Howard and for everyone else, too."

As in any Phase III trial, however, the results aren't final until the study ends and all the data are analyzed. "We can't conclude anything for certain until then," cautions one expert.

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