September 26, 2017

Today’s Top Alzheimer’s News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A September 25, 2017 UsAgainstAlzheimer’s statement by UsA2 Co-Founder and Chairman George Vradenburg reacts to the Graham-Cassidy health care bill, currently before the US Senate. According to Vradenburg, “Americans living with Alzheimer’s need help. What they don’t need is the Graham-Cassidy health care bill which poses a real threat to the five million people and their families dying from the disease.” And, “We must find a way to fix our health coverage system, but we cannot do so at the expense of the millions of American families that are fighting Alzheimer’s. We urge Senators to vote against Graham-Cassidy.”


MUST READS

A September 26, 2017 STAT article reported that biotech startup Axovant Sciences’ intepirdine, a once-promising treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, has failed in late-stage drug trials. The trial’s goal was to show a slow in cognitive decline when pairing intepirdine with Aricept. Axovant is currently testing the same drug in dementia with Lewy bodies, as well as nelotanserin, also for dementia with Lewy bodies. 


A September 26, 2017 The Philadelphia Tribune article explored the myriad of reasons people can become forgetful as they get older. It is not necessarily a sign of a serious memory problem like Alzheimer’s disease. Aging, medical conditions, emotional problems, mild cognitive impairment, or another type of dementia such as Lewy body, a frontotemporal disorder or vascular dementia, are all potential causes of memory problems.


A September 25, 2017 The Hill blog post by Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Scott Peters (D-CA) spotlighted the Tuesday Group, a caucus of moderate House Republicans and a coalition of moderate House Democrats (New Democrat Coalition), working together to support funding for the National Institutes of Health. They believe that curing diseases is both the right thing to do and smart economic policy. “We hope with renewed investment in NIH-funded basic research, soon scientists will be able to unravel the mysteries of diseases like Alzheimer’s.”


INDUSTRY UPDATE

A September 21, 2017 BioPharma Dive article looked at the state of Alzheimer’s disease drug development. According to PhRMA’s Medicines in Development report, there are 85 medicines being studied to treat Alzheimer’s disease and a dire need for new treatments. Costs to patients, caregivers and the US healthcare system could be reduced by $367 billion annually with the development of a treatment that delayed onset by as much as five years. For a more in-depth look at the Alzheimer's pipeline, be sure to check out our latest report from ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer's.