ClinicalTrials.gg
Active, not recruitingNCT05543681CALMAUpdated Sep 30, 2026

Clinical Trial on Agitation in Alzheimer's Dementia

A Phase 2 interventional study of IGC-AD1-Active and IGC-AD1-Placebo in Alzheimer Disease, Agitation,Psychomotor and Care Giving Burden, sponsored by IGC Pharma, LLC. Active, not recruiting at 28 sites in 3 countries. Open to participants aged 60 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-30.

Sponsored by IGC Pharma, LLC · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Updated Sep 30, 2026Now Active, not recruitingNo longer in Colombia+3 moreGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
164
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
60 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of the oral medication IGC-AD1, a THC-based (Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol) formulation administered twice a day on Agitation in patients with mild to severe dementia from Alzheimer's.

Read the detailed description

CALMA is a multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. The study targets participants aged 60 and older with mild to severe Alzheimer's dementia who have exhibited clinically significant agitation for at least two weeks prior to enrollment. Agitation caused by other conditions or transient symptoms must be ruled out. Eligibility is determined by a baseline Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI-12), Agitation subscale score of ≥4 and the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) criteria for agitation.

The investigational medication is an oral solution containing two active ingredients: delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and melatonin. The treatment is administered for 42 days, followed by a two-day taper period at the end of the study.

Safety oversight includes daily calls on days 2, 3, and 4, transitioning to calls every third day thereafter. These calls will review study partners logbook entries, changes in concomitant medications, and adverse events.

The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of IGC-AD1 on agitation, measured by changes in the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) scores from baseline to the End of treatment (EOT). The secondary objective is to assess efficacy by examining CMAI score changes from baseline to week two. Additionally, exploratory objectives are outlined in separate documentation.

Blood samples will be collected during the trial for sparse pharmacokinetic (PK) analysis, blood-based CNS biomarker, and genotyping.

02

Conditions studied

  • Alzheimer Disease
  • Agitation,Psychomotor
  • Care Giving Burden
  • NPS
  • Aggression

Keywords

  • Cannabis
  • Tetrahydrocannabinol
  • THC
  • Melatonin
  • Alzheimer's
  • Marijuana
  • Hemp
  • Agitation
  • Dementia
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • NPI
  • CMAI
  • Dronabinol
03

In context

Alzheimer Disease

3,965 studies on the registry are indexed under Alzheimer Disease; 926 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 164 is above the median of 70 across 3,019 interventional studies indexed under Alzheimer Disease.

Browse Alzheimer Disease studies →

Lead sponsor

IGC Pharma, LLC is the lead sponsor of 2 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
60 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

To be eligible to participate in this study, the participant must meet all the following criteria:

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria

  1. Participant and/or Caregiver must provide a signed and dated ICF prior to any study procedures.
  2. Must have a Caregiver who is able and willing to comply with all required study procedures.
  3. The Caregiver must be known to the Participant and must be able to use electronic devices such as a cell phone, video conference over a laptop or cell phone, weighing scale, and be able to learn to take blood pressure, among others.
  4. Based on local practice, Participants that cannot consent may have Caregiver's consent provided the Caregiver has among others a) Power of Attorney, b) is a spouse, or c) a sibling or d) a child or e) a close relation. The practice of accepting consent must be consistent with established practice at the site and jurisdiction.
  5. Participants must consent to CYP450 and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotyping, and pharmacokinetics.
  6. Diagnosis of AD by NIA-AA criteria
  7. Agitation assessed by:

    1. NPI (Agitation) ≥ 4
    2. The presence of clinically significant, persistent Agitation based on the IPA definition (Appendix C) rather than those with recent onset and occasional symptoms, and
    3. Agitation not attributable to another psychiatric disorder, suboptimal care conditions, other underlining medical condition, or the physiological effects of a substance.
  8. Negative drug screen, except for benzodiazepines if Participant has been using them in stable doses for at least 3 months before screening.
  9. All medications used for behavioral symptoms should be consistent for at least 6 weeks before screening, with allowance for dose changes up to 25%.
  10. Women must be of no (, defined as cessation of menses for at least 12 months, without an alternative medical cause for amenorrhea) or surgically sterile (hysterectomy, bilateral oophorectomy, or bilateral tubal ligation)).

An individual who meets any of the following criteria will be excluded from participation in this study:

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria

  1. Prior adverse reaction to cannabinoids or to any component of Study Drug (IGC-AD1 and placebo).
  2. Serious or unstable medical illness, including cardiovascular, hepatic, renal, respiratory, endocrine, neurologic, or hematologic disease, which might confound assessment of safety outcomes.
  3. History of seizures, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder.
  4. Has participated in an drug or device study within 30 days prior to study start.
  5. Urine drug screen positive for drug use, except for benzodiazepines if Participant was using them previously and their dose had remained stable for at least six weeks before screening.
  6. History of Alcohol and Drug use disorder, within one year prior to enrollment.
  7. Hypertension: Participants with a history of uncontrolled hypertension as determined by the PI and Participants with a hypertensive crisis in the six months prior to enrollment.
  8. Falls: Participants with a history of recurrent falls defined as more than two falls in the six-month period prior to enrollment and a history of falls resulting in injuries or associated with a new acute illness, loss of consciousness, fever, or abnormal blood pressure (Fuller et al., 2000).
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Postmenopausal

Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator)
Enrollment
164 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Active Comparator: IGC-AD1Active

    IGC-AD1-Active, oral solution with two APIs (THC and melatonin).

    Drug: IGC-AD1-Active

  • Placebo comparator
    Placebo Comparator: IGC-AD1 Placebo

    IGC-AD1-Placebo, oral solution similar to Active in color, taste, and texture, with excipients but without APIs.

    Drug: IGC-AD1-Placebo

Interventions

  • DrugIGC-AD1-Active

    A non-sterile solution for oral administration.

    Also known as: Active

  • DrugIGC-AD1-Placebo

    A non-sterile solution for oral administration similar in color and texture to the Active.

    Also known as: Placebo

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Agitation

    Change in mean Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) score

    Time frame: Baseline to week six

Secondary outcomes

  1. Acute Agitation

    Change in mean Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) score

    Time frame: Baseline to week two

Other outcomes

  1. Agitation at week four

    Change in mean Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) score

    Time frame: Baseline to week four

  2. Participant overall wellbeing

    Change in the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI)

    Time frame: Baseline to weeks two and six

  3. Participant executive functions

    Change in Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE2) score

    Time frame: Baseline to week six

  4. Depression

    Change in mean Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) score

    Time frame: Baseline to weeks two, four, and six

  5. Neuropsychiatric symptoms

    Change in mean Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI-12) score

    Time frame: Baseline to weeks two, four, and six

  6. Participant quality of life

    Change in mean Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease (QOL-AD) score

    Time frame: Baseline to weeks two, four and six

  7. Caregiver burden

    Change in mean Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) score

    Time frame: Baseline to weeks two and six

  8. Psychotropic drugs

    Change in type and dosage of psychotropic drugs

    Time frame: Baseline to six weeks

  9. CYP2C9 polymorphisms on agitation

    Change in mean Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) score for each type of metabolizer group (\*1/\*1, \*1/\*3, etc.)

    Time frame: Baseline to weeks two, four and six

07

Study locations

28 sites
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedDate before it movedWhere the date was before it movedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Oct 2022 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Nov 2026, 49 months after the start.

Of 130 industry-sponsored phase 2 interventional studies under Alzheimer Disease, half reached primary completion within 26 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 17 and three quarters within 39. This study's planned 49 months is above that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 257 studies reached it within 37 months; a quarter within 21 and three quarters within 58.

Since we started tracking on Sep 25, 2026, the dates moved once, on Sep 30, 2026: primary completion Aug 2026 → Nov 2026 and completion Aug 2026 → Nov 2026.

Earlier changes are on the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Sep 14, 2022
First posted
Sep 16, 2022
StartActual
Oct 11, 2022
Primary completionEst.
Nov 2026was Aug 2026
CompletionEst.
Nov 2026was Aug 2026
Last update
Sep 30, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
Status
Recruiting→Active, not recruiting
changed Sep 30, 2026
Sites
3 sites removed; no longer in Colombia
Show 3 removed
  • BayCare Health System Inc. · St. Petersburg, United States
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai · New York, United States
  • Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia, Universidad de Antioquia · Medellín, Colombia
Sep 30, 2026
Primary completion
Aug 2026→Nov 2026
Sep 30, 2026
Study completion
Aug 2026→Nov 2026
Sep 30, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Sep 30, 2026
    Recruiting→Active, not recruiting
    3 sites removed; no longer in Colombia
    Show 3 removed
    • BayCare Health System Inc. · St. Petersburg, United States
    • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai · New York, United States
    • Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia, Universidad de Antioquia · Medellín, Colombia
    Primary completion Aug 2026→Nov 2026
    Study completion Aug 2026→Nov 2026
    + 2 other changes: verification date and contact details

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05543681
Lead sponsor
IGC Pharma, LLC
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 16, 2022
Start date
Oct 11, 2022
Primary completion
Nov 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Nov 2026 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 30, 2026

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Sep 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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