USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A July 1, 2016 press release announced that Governor McAuliffe appointed Karen H. Garner to the state’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Commission. Karen Garner is a Patient & Caregiver Advocate for UsAgainstAlzheimer's. She was caregiver for eight years for her husband, James, whom she and her two children lost to early onset Alzheimer’s onApril 2. Karen is a passionate activist in the fight against Alzheimer’s, speaking out widely and writing extensively about her years as caregiver, the effect of early onset Alzheimer’s on her family, the devastation wrought by this unforgiving disease, and the critical need for more research and a cure.

MUST READS

A July 10, 2016 The Root article reported that “Charles Ogletree, author, activist and Harvard law professor who taught both Barack and Michelle Obama, revealed that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease but that it has been a ‘blessing.’” According to the article, “Ogletree, 63, said he was recently diagnosed by a neurologist, and shared the news in a bicentennial message at the 50th quadrennial General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia on Tuesday…Ogletree joins other prominent African Americans such as model and restauranteur Barbara “B. Smith” Smith, who has come forward to talk about her struggle with the neurological brain disease. More 5 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer’s and that number is increasing, Ogletree noted.”

A July 8, 2016 Healthcare Finance News article reported that “CMS is proposing a new code to pay for cognitive and functional assessment and care planning for patients with cognitive impairment, such as for patients with Alzheimer’s.” According to the article, “The rule proposes revisions to payment for chronic care management, including payment for new codes and for extra care management furnished by a physician or practitioner following the initiating visit for patients with multiple chronic conditions. CMS said it will pay physicians more accurately for furnishing services to beneficiaries with mobility-related impairments.”

A July 8, 2016 The New York Times article reported that major disease are on the decline and provided some evidence that dementia rates are falling. According to the article, “A recent American study, for example, reports that the incidence [of dementia] among people over age 60 was 3.6 per 100 in the years 1986-1991, but in the years 2004-2008 it had fallen to 2.0 per 100 over age 60. With more older people in the population every year, there may be more cases in total, but an individual’s chance of getting dementia has gotten lower and lower.There are reasons that make sense. Ministrokes result from vascular disease and can cause dementia, and cardiovascular risk factors are also risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. So the improved control of blood pressure and cholesterol levels should have an effect. Better education has also been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, although it is not known why. But the full explanation for the declining rates is anyone’s guess. And the future of this trend remains a contested unknown.”

A July 8, 2016 Forbes.com opinion piece by Howard Gleckman outlined why a tax break for Alzheimer’s drugmakers is a bad idea. According to Gleckman, “In one of the worst ideas I’ve heard in a long time, two congressmen have introduced a bill to make profits from the sale of certain anti-Alzheimer’s drugs tax free for seven years.  The measure, sponsored by representatives Patrick Murphy (D-FL) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA), may be well-intentioned, but it would provide a multi-billion dollar windfall to pharmaceutical companies. There is no evidence it would improve the nation’s overall health and it could very well harm it…Drug companies already get huge subsidies from the federal government.  The 2016 federal budget for Alzheimer’s research reached $1 billion and that funding is likely to increase again this year. While taxpayers subsidize this research, the government receives none of the profits from the sale of drugs that result from this publicly-funded science.”

RESEARCH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

A July 9, 2016 AlzForum.com article highlighted a gathering of German-speaking families who are affected by dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “Discretion notwithstanding, the conference marked a milestone. Starting in 2012, German researchers led by co-organizers Mathias Jucker at the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research in Tübingen and his colleagues Adrian Danek and Johannes Levin at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, built a German branch of the increasingly worldwide DIAN observational study network. All three scientists have appointments at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), which funds the German DIAN study. The two German DIAN sites have thus far recruited 50 participants from families plagued by pathogenic presenilin 1 and 2 mutations, APP mutations, or APP duplications. Scientists currently estimate that approximately 80 such families exist in Germany, though additional families in the country or its near neighbors may not yet know that a dominantly inherited gene causes their family condition, or about the DIAN initiative as a study opportunity. Public knowledge about autosomal-dominant AD remains limited in central European countries.”

A July 8, 2016 Science News article highlighted “New methods to examine the brain and spinal fluid [that] heighten the chance of early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.” According to the article, “Results from a large European study, led by researchers at the Karolinska Institutet, are now published in the medical journal BRAIN. These findings may have important implications for early detection of the disease, the choice of drug treatment and the inclusion of patients in clinical trials.”

A July 7, 2016 Lundbeck.com press release announced that H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck)and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track Designation to the investigational agent idalopirdine for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.”