Today's Top Alzheimer's News
USA2 SPOTLIGHT
Must Listen: On Wednesday December 14, 2016 at 3PM EST Phyllis Barkman Ferrell, Vice President and GBD Leader of Global Alzheimer's Disease Platform Team at Eli Lilly, will offer thoughts on Lilly’s Phase III Solanezumab Trial. Details on how to listen in below.
Webex:
https://arentfox.webex.com/
Meeting number: 641 435 525
Meeting password: 26811197
Join by phone
Call-in toll-free number: 1-855-5125036 (US)
Call-in number: 1-617-5975536 (US)
Attendee access code: 917 416 46
MUST READS
A December 12, 2016 Las Vegas Review-Journal article profiled Dr. Kate Zhong, chief strategy officer for the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation, and her efforts to better understand Alzheimer’s through clinical trial innovation. According to Zhong, “From my first Alzheimer’s patient, I really wanted to find the best possible treatment. My grandmother didn’t have dementia, but my aunt did, and I watched her progressing in this dreadful disease. It’s a heartbreaker as a family member and caregiver. As a researcher, this really drew me to this area.”
A December 12, 2016 Neurology Advisor article reported that “Amyloid beta protein accumulation was discovered in the hearts of patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to the results of a retrospective cross-sectional study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.”
A December 12, 2016 CNN.com article reported that “Regular use of statins is associated with a reduced risk for Alzheimer's, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Neurology on Monday.” According to the article, “The significance of this reduction seems to vary based on sex and ethnicity, said Julie Zissimopoulos, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California's Sol Price School of Public Policy and lead author of the study.”
A December 12, 2016 Boston Globe article opinion piece by Dr. Kenneth Kosik highlighted the “real trouble with Alzheimer’s research.” According to Kosik, “It is a highly polarized dispute, and judging all the failed Alzheimer’s trials too harshly would be a mistake. But there are some take-home lessons from the Eli Lilly trial. At the outset of a drug trial, researchers should assess expectations for the magnitude of the effect size. Will the drug go beyond a statistically significant but minimal benefit to improve a patient’s overall welfare? We need to weigh the financial burden a treatment will impose on families and the sacrifices they will make when the benefits are small. And we need to take off the blinders as we look for a single mechanism as a cause of Alzheimer’s disease. The great disparity in our minimal knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease compared with our rich knowledge of cancer makes a stark contrast when designing treatments. The cancer field draws upon vast sectors of basic biology from which treatments are emerging; the Alzheimer’s field remains constrained by its incessant focus on a narrow view of the disease.”
POLITICS
A December 12, 2016 McClatchyDC.com article reported on Republican support for medical research. According to the article, “With a stroke of his pen on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will commit billions of dollars in federal funds to boost medical research, including money for Vice President Joe Biden’s “moonshot” to cure cancer. But the budget increase for the National Institutes of Health authorized in the 21st Century Cures Act is smaller than hoped for by some conservative lawmakers, including Rep. Kevin Yoder and Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt. The three Republicans say the bill doesn’t go far enough, and they’ll keep working to build up the NIH’s budget.”