USA2 SPOTLIGHT

A May 21, 2018 UsAgainstAlzheimer's release spotlighted the official launch of AD PACE, a groundbreaking, pre-competitive, patient and caregiver-led collaboration. The initiative is a platform delivering new insights to research, regulatory and payer authorities on preferred treatment and health outcomes for people living with Alzheimer's and their caregivers. The collaboration is comprised of industry, academics, government agencies and patient advocates. According to UsA2 Chairman George Vradenburg, “The level and quality of the partnerships involved in this effort are a testament to the size of the Alzheimer’s public health emergency and the urgency with which meaningful solutions are needed.” AD PACE is an initiative of UsAgainstAlzheimer's. Also covered by CISION PR Newswire.
 

INDUSTRY UPDATE

A May 21, 2018 Seeking Alpha article reported that Johnson & Johnson just announced that it abandoned its atabecestat Alzheimer’s disease clinical trial. Participants were experiencing severe liver toxicity. Other pharmaceutical companies have also stopped their BACE inhibitor clinical trials due to high risk factors. Atabecestat is now added to the heap pile of a 99% overall AD clinical trial failure rate. Also covered by CNBC, Reuters and Pharma Times.

RESEARCH AND SCIENCE

A May 17, 2018 Newsweek article looked at new research on mice, engineered with a mutated version of an App gene, which protects them from Alzheimer’s disease. The mice were created with the CRISPR gene editing tool. The hope is that the same protection exists in humans. The App gene is associated with the buildup of amyloid-beta in the brain, a major hallmark of AD.

MUST READS

In a May 17, 2018 Independent “Voices” piece by Janet Street-Porter, she addressed her obsession with self-memory testing every morning to assess her mental capacity. Dementia is now the biggest killer in Britain and a newsworthy subject. Street-Porter points to research from University College London finding that “people with rich cultural lives do better at delaying the onset of dementia.”

MUST WATCH

A May 18, 2018 Denver 7 ABC broadcast segment and article showed undercover footage of non-medical experts touting their experimental stem cell treatments to regenerate brain tissue. The cost is around $6,000 per treatment. According to Dr. Jonathan Woodcock of the University of Colorado Denver, “Alzheimer's is a very complex disease. It's been looked at with a number of different hypothetical, theoretical models that have led to various kinds of experimental treatment approaches and none of those have yielded substantial results as yet.”

MUST LISTEN

A May 21, 2018 Nashville Public Radio “Morning Edition” radio segment and article spotlighted caregiver support groups at Abe’s Garden in West Nashville and the caregivers who attend them. According to Vicki Bartholomew, whose husband was one of the facility’s first residents, “I’m finally at the point where I’m beginning to put my life together after three years. But my husband’s still living, and now I’m in an even more difficult situation — I’m married, but I’m a widow.”” 

VETERANS SPOTLIGHT

A May 17, 2018 Maine Public radio segment and article focused on the U.S. military’s examination of the impact of certain powerful shoulder-mounted weapons on soldiers’ brains. This is the first time military officials are speaking publicly about the potential risks. Soldiers and veterans are at increased risk for problems with memory and thinking, and developing dementia.

DEMENTIA AND THE ARTS

A May 16, 2018 The Conversation article addressed how dementia is portrayed in comics. The NIH found that tactics for managing people with dementia in hospitals dehumanizes and demoralizes them. According to the article, “Such dehumanisation perhaps comes as little surprise, given that dementia is often described as the loss of someone before they actually die. And despite what has been described as a “dementia boom” across the mainstream press, television, film, literature and other forms of art and media, for the most part, representations of people with dementia remain “essentially negative”. Invaders, zombies or empty shells are common metaphors used to represent dementia.”