USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A March 17, 2015 statement from the Global CEO Initiative (CEOi) on Alzheimer’s Disease applauded the announcement of the $100 million Dementia Discovery Fund, created by the British government and industry partners. According to CEOi convener and USA2 chairman George Vradenburg, “This type of innovative financing mechanism is critical if we are going to improve drug development and move forward on patient-centric care.  It’s how we tackled polio and HIV/AIDS and malaria, and it’s how we must address Alzheimer’s.  I firmly believe that we can find a cure for Alzheimer’s by 2025, but new collaborations, commitments and innovations beyond ‘business-as-usual’ are necessary to change the trajectory of the disease and its impact on business and fiscal budgets around the world.”

MUST READS

A March 18, 2015 Philly.com article profiled Alzheimer’s caregiver Carl Harrison and her concerns about end-of-life care options for herself and others facing dementia. According to Harrison, “Carol Harrison's grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 75, and lasted eight years. Her aunt also was 75, and lived 13 years. Her mother was 75 when the confusion set in. "I'm 60," Harrison says. "That means I'm going to plan on having a good quality of life for 15 more years. And at that point, honestly, that's enough for me. That's enough. Because I don't want this . . ." She stops. Tears well in her eyes. ". . . to ever fall on my kids." In the last month, Harrison has been radicalized. She watched the movie Still Alice, in which Julianne Moore won the best-actress Academy Award playing a professor with early-onset Alzheimer's. And she read The Inquirer's Feb. 19 story about Barbara Bitros, a former hospice nurse and educator who might have early-onset Alzheimer's and has vowed to end her life before she loses her sense of self. "I don't want to say I'm obsessed with it," said Harrison, who lives in Lansdale, as did her mother, her aunt, and grandmother. "But I really want to learn as much information as I can." Harrison would like to make a plan for her own death, should dementia set in. To her, it seems perfectly sane.”

A March 16, 2015 Wall Street Journal article reported on the efforts of researchers to develop a pill “that could prevent or delay some of the most debilitating diseases of old age, including Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.” According to the article, “The focus of the project isn’t to prolong life, although that could occur, but to make the last years or decades of people’s lives more fulfilling by postponing the onset of many chronic diseases until closer to death. The project aims to tap into the growing body of research targeting aging, which has revealed a half dozen or more drugs that appear to delay the aging process in laboratory experiments on animals and observational studies of people. Some of the drugs also have been found to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases associated with old age. “Aging is the major risk factor for all these diseases—heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s,” said Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City who is leading the proposed study. “If you want to make a real impact you have to modulate the risk of aging and by that the risk for all those diseases of aging.””

POLITICS 

A March 17, 2015 The State (NC) article reported that Jeb Bush highlighted his support for medical innovation and Alzheimer’s funding during a speech to the Upstate Chamber Coalition. According to the article, “Bush predicted that new medical devices will enable people to take more responsibility for their own health, which will improve outcomes and lower costs. He expressed support for increased funding for research on Alzheimer's disease.”

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE 

A March 18, 2015 Wall Street Journal Q&A with Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, focused on Japan’s aging policies. According to Osotimehin, “Japan is an aged society. I think it could provide a laboratory for the rest of the world on how to manage aging. I think it’s important what Japan has done and achieved not be seen as negative. It should be seen as positive in terms of how the right investments were made and how democratization and good governance have allowed people to get where they are. I think developing countries can learn from it and to understand that investments don’t have to be large but that you need to make them.”

SPORTS 

A March 17, 2015 CNN article reported that NFL player Chris Borland announced he will retire from football because of the risks associated with concussions. According to the article, “At age 24, not even yet in his prime as an NFL player, Borland told his team he was retiring because he was worried about the long-term effects of head trauma. "I just honestly want to do what's best for my health," he told ESPN. "From what I've researched and what I've experienced, I don't think it's worth the risk. ... I'm concerned that if you wait (until) you have symptoms, it's too late.””