what they said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

Scottish researchers have discovered that a drug that's in its early stages of testing is effective at dissolving the protein tangles that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

Methylthioninium chloride or MTC (Rember), when used at a 60-mg dose over 50 weeks, reduced cognitive decline by 81 per cent...

The original article can be found at: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/07/30/protein-study.html

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what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

There are a number of things troubling about this story. Perhaps the most crucial one being the fact that the CEO of the company producing the MTC treatment is quoted as a university researcher without his obvious conflict of interest mentioned. This connection was noted in the press release on which the story was based.

The drug in question, Methylthioninium chloride or MTC shows some level of effectiveness at "dissolving the protein tangles that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients." The report notes that it " reduced cognitive decline by 81 per cent" but this is a unhelpful relative reduction value. Glowing reports from other spokespeople deliver an hyped perception of the drug and important questions such as the potential for harm, or when the drug might be available to the Canadian public are missing from the report. We have noted that the story seemed overly reliant on the press release which was issued when these study findings were presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago.

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