Drugmakers to share data to speed brain research

Major drugmakers will share data from their clinical trials for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease in an effort to speed the development of new medicines to treat the brain disorders. The database, a public/private partnership unveiled on Friday, will give academic and industry researchers worldwide access to information from more than 4,000 patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Bringing the data together, rather than keeping pieces of it within each drug company, will give scientists a larger amount of information on how the diseases progress and how they differ in various patients. Backers hope the approach will jump start research into treatments for some of the toughest and most common brain disorders. Despite decades of study, doctors still have few effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease, which affects more than 26 million people globally. It is the most common form of dementia. An estimated four million people worldwide have Parkinson's disease, which causes trembling and other symptoms.