November 13, 2014

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

Where are all the new drugs? Former Republican Rep. Marge Roukema dies from Alzheimer's and USA2 pushes for global cooperation on Alzheimer's (read more). 
 

Must reads

  • A November 13, 2014 New York Times article highlighted issues with drug development and explored why there are so few drugs that hit the market. According to the article, "But this golden road to pharmaceutical riches, known as target-based drug discovery, has often proved to be more of a garden path. The first disappointment has been that most diseases affecting large numbers of people are not caused by a handful of mutations that can be unearthed as easily as digging potatoes in a field. Geneticists have called this the problem of “missing heritability,” because despite what they promised in the 1990s, they have found no single genetic variants that are necessary and sufficient to cause most forms of widespread diseases like diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s or cancer. The second disappointment is that even when a genetic variation can be plainly linked to a disease, the process for figuring out what to do about it rarely works as efficiently as advertised. Compounds that appear to hit a designated target right between the eyes still often fail to be safe and effective in animal and human studies. Biology is just way too complicated."
  • A November 12, 2014 Roll Call article reported that former New Jersey Republican Representative Marge Roukema died at the age of 85 from Alzheimer's. According to the article, "Marge Roukema, a moderate who represented northern New Jersey for 22 years and was the lead Republican pushing for the Family Medical Leave Act, died Wednesday…Roukema teamed up with more liberal Democrats to push the FMLA, only to see President George Bush veto versions of the legislation twice. President Bill Clinton signed a version into law in 1993. She frequently found herself opposing her GOP colleagues — and more than a few moderate and conservative Democrats — on a range of hot-button issues such as abortion, gun control, the environment and health care."
  • A November 12, 2014 Nasdaq Globewire post highlighted global cooperation on Alzheimer's research and drug discovery. According to the announcement, "At the workshop of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), entitled "Enhancing Translational Research and Clinical Development in Alzheimer's Disease and other Dementia: The Way Forward," hosted by The Swiss Government and in cooperation with The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease (CEOi) and Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI), participants shared ideas on how to ramp up drug and diagnostics development. The goal is to accelerate the translation of innovative research into effective therapies for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Important opportunities include, for example, new clinical trial designs, a global clinical trial platform, and flexible regulatory processes. Treatment of early disease stages represents a cornerstone of current biomedical research and health innovation strategies."