Must reads

• A November 6, 2013 Triangle Business Journal article reported that a new study by RTI International predicts it will cost $5.7 billion to bring the first effective Alzheimer’s drug to market, three times the typical cost of drug development. According to the article, "Despite countless efforts - even some locally - there’s still no treatment to slow or reverse the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. And it’s hard for some companies to justify pouring billions into an area of research with those odds." Read the report here and announcement by New York Academy of Sciences here. 

• A November 6, 2013 Science Codex article highlighted the need for action against Alzheimer's including the need to streamline the R&D process. The article quoted USA2 Chairman George Vradenburg as saying, "Global leadership and collaboration across business and government are essential to drive coordinated action, promote rapid innovation, and spur the focus needed to achieve a means of prevention and effective diagnosis, treatment, and care for Alzheimer's and dementia...The inefficiencies in the current drug development system can be addressed and we can meet the goal of stopping Alzheimer's by 2025."
• A November 6, 2013 Nature article reported on widespread confusion in the neuroscience community over President Obama's BRAIN Initiative  According to the article, "But as the initiative has evolved, it has also come to resemble a large-scale sociological experiment, as the sprawling neuroscience community struggles to coalesce around a common research plan under intense public scrutiny and tough financial constraints."