Executive Summary

Randomized, placebo-controlled study on long-term efficacy of sorbinil, published in the Sept. 1 New England Journal of Medicine. Study concludes that the aldose reductase inhibitor, "as a metabolic intervention targeted against a specific biochemical consequence of hyperglycemia, can improve the neuropathologic lesions of diabetic neuropathy." The study is part of the Pfizer/National Eye Institute's large, multicenter investigation of sorbinil. It found that the 10 sorbinil-treated patients had a 42% decrease in nerve sorbitol content and a 3.8 fold increase in the percentage of regenerating myelinated nerve fibers after one-year of treatment. Pfizer said it expects analysis of all sorbinal trial data to be completed later this year. The company has begun considering related compounds.