A new database of more than 4,000 Alzheimer's disease patients who have participated in 11 industry-sponsored clinical trials was released by the Coalition Against Major Diseases.

This is the first database of combined clinical trials to be openly shared by pharmaceutical companies and made available to qualified researchers around the world, according to the group.

It is also the first effort of its kind to create a voluntary industry data standard that will help accelerate new treatment research on brain disease. The data will enable researchers to more accurately predict the true course of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and other neuro-degenerative diseases, thereby enabling the design of more efficient clinical trials.

CAMD is a formal consortium of pharmaceutical companies, research foundations and patient advocacy/voluntary health associations, with advisors from government research and regulatory agencies including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the U.S. National Institute on Aging. CAMD is led and managed by the non-profit Critical Path Institute (C-Path), which is funded by a cooperative agreement with the FDA and a matching grant from Science Foundation Arizona.

CAMD members include Abbott, Alliance for Aging Research, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Foundation of America, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, CHDI Foundation, Eli Lilly, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Forest Research Institute, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, National Health Council, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Parkinson's Action Network, Parkinson's Disease Foundation, Pfizer, and sanofi-aventis US.