Source: European Medicines Agency (EU) Revision Year: 2021 Publisher: Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Eckenheimer Landstr. 100, D-60318 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Pharmacotherapeutic group: Other Anti-dementia drugs
ATC code: N06DX01
There is increasing evidence that malfunctioning of glutamatergic neurotransmission, in particular at NMDA-receptors, contributes to both expression of symptoms and disease progression in neurodegenerative dementia.
Memantine is a voltage-dependent, moderate-affinity uncompetitive NMDA-receptor antagonist. It modulates the effects of pathologically elevated tonic levels of glutamate that may lead to neuronal dysfunction.
A pivotal monotherapy study in a population of patients suffering from moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease (mini mental state examination (MMSE) total scores at baseline of 3-14) included a total of 252 outpatients. The study showed beneficial effects of memantine treatment in comparison to placebo at 6 months (observed cases analysis for the clinician’s interview based impression of change (CIBIC-plus): p=0.025; Alzheimer’s disease cooperative study – activities of daily living (ADCS-ADLsev): p=0.003; severe impairment battery (SIB): p=0.002).
A pivotal monotherapy study of memantine in the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease (MMSE total scores at baseline of 10 to 22) included 403 patients. Memantine-treated patients showed a statistically significantly better effect than placebo-treated patients on the primary endpoints: Alzheimer´s disease assessment scale (ADAS-cog) (p=0.003) and CIBIC-plus (p=0.004) at week 24 last observation carried forward (LOCF). In another monotherapy study in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease a total of 470 patients (MMSE total scores at baseline of 11-23) were randomised. In the prospectively defined primary analysis statistical significance was not reached at the primary efficacy endpoint at week 24.
A meta-analysis of patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease (MMSE total scores <20) from the six phase III, placebo-controlled, 6-month studies (including monotherapy studies and studies with patients on a stable dose of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors) showed that there was a statistically significant effect in favour of memantine treatment for the cognitive, global, and functional domains. When patients were identified with concurrent worsening in all three domains, results showed a statistically significant effect of memantine in preventing worsening, as twice as many placebo-treated patients as memantine-treated patients showed worsening in all three domains (21% vs. 11%, p<0.0001).
Memantine has an absolute bioavailability of approximately 100%. Tmax is between 3 and 8 hours. There is no indication that food influences the absorption of memantine.
Daily doses of 20 mg lead to steady-state plasma concentrations of memantine ranging from 70 to 150 ng/ml (0.5-1 µmol) with large interindividual variations. When daily doses of 5 to 30 mg were administered, a mean cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)/serum ratio of 0.52 was calculated. The volume of distribution is around 10 l/kg. About 45% of memantine is bound to plasma-proteins.
In man, about 80% of the circulating memantine-related material is present as the parent compound. Main human metabolites are N-3,5-dimethyl-gludantan, the isomeric mixture of 4- and 6-hydroxy-memantine, and 1-nitroso-3,5-dimethyl-adamantane. None of these metabolites exhibit NMDA-antagonistic activity. No cytochrome P 450 catalysed metabolism has been detected in vitro.
In a study using orally administered 14C-memantine, a mean of 84% of the dose was recovered within 20 days, more than 99% being excreted renally.
Memantine is eliminated in a monoexponential manner with a terminal t½ of 60 to 100 hours. In volunteers with normal kidney function, total clearance (Cltot) amounts to 170 ml/min/1.73 m² and part of total renal clearance is achieved by tubular secretion.
Renal handling also involves tubular reabsorption, probably mediated by cation transport proteins. The renal elimination rate of memantine under alkaline urine conditions may be reduced by a factor of 7 to 9 (see section 4.4). Alkalisation of urine may result from drastic changes in diet, e.g. from a carnivore to a vegetarian diet, or from the massive ingestion of alkalising gastric buffers.
Studies in volunteers have demonstrated linear pharmacokinetics in the dose range of 10 to 40 mg.
At a dose of memantine of 20 mg per day the CSF levels match the ki-value (ki = inhibition constant) of memantine, which is 0.5 µmol in human frontal cortex.
In short term studies in rats memantine like other NMDA-antagonists have induced neuronal vacuolisation and necrosis (Olney lesions) only after doses leading to very high peak serum concentrations. Ataxia and other preclinical signs have preceded the vacuolisation and necrosis. As the effects have neither been observed in long term studies in rodents nor in non-rodents, the clinical relevance of these findings is unknown.
Ocular changes were inconsistently observed in repeat dose toxicity studies in rodents and dogs, but not in monkeys. Specific ophthalmoscopic examinations in clinical studies with memantine did not disclose any ocular changes.
Phospholipidosis in pulmonary macrophages due to accumulation of memantine in lysosomes was observed in rodents. This effect is known from other active substances with cationic amphiphilic properties. There is a possible relationship between this accumulation and the vacuolisation observed in lungs. This effect was only observed at high doses in rodents. The clinical relevance of these findings is unknown.
No genotoxicity has been observed following testing of memantine in standard assays. There was no evidence of any carcinogenicity in life long studies in mice and rats. Memantine was not teratogenic in rats and rabbits, even at maternally toxic doses, and no adverse effects of memantine were noted on fertility. In rats, foetal growth reduction was noted at exposure levels, which are identical or slightly higher than at human exposure.
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