Breaking News: An update on Memantine, Trazodone and Placebo arms
Sep 2023: Judy Newton, MND nurse consultant and Beverley Gray, MND-SMART family, and participant representative detail the outcome of the latest results of MND-SMART.
We have designed MND-SMART so that we can test several drugs that might improve outcomes for people living with MND rapidly and efficiently. We have opened 20 sites across the UK to make sure as many people can take part as possible. Since we launched in 2020, we have recruited nearly 600 people from all 4 UK nations. We started testing with 2 drugs in the trial called memantine and trazodone.
We have designed the trial so that we can look at data regularly to see if any drugs are working or not. This allows us to either keep testing or to stop early if there is no benefit. Independent committees have looked at the latest data at an interim analysis and decided that there is no benefit from memantine and trazodone and that we have gathered enough evidence to stop testing them.
It is very good news that we now know this definitively and can move on to testing new drugs. The study is designed to introduce drugs efficiently as new evidence emerges from our drug screening programme. We started testing a third drug called amantadine in April 2023 and will be introducing several new drugs in the trial in 2024 and 2025.
Every participant in the trial is helping the MND community; those who may be diagnosed in the future and those also affected right now around the world. Every blood sample, diary entry and trial assessment is making a difference. We will publish our findings so that everyone knows that memantine and trazodone do not need to be tested again. We will keep moving forward and test many more drugs until we find the ones that slow down and prolong survival for people living with MND.