Report: Alzheimer’s affects younger age group

June 6, 2006
In conjunction with 18th Annual Public Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., the Alzheimer’s Association has released a new report titled Early On-set Dementia: A National Challenge, a Future Crisis. The report urges the federal government to support a research project that would determine how many people in the United States have early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which occurs before age 65.

There may be as many as half a million people in the U.S. who have early-onset AD. Current public policies do not address their unique needs either because their condition is at first undiagnosed or they do not quality for existing public or private assistance programs. As diagnostics improve and awareness increases – more people will be diagnosed with AD at younger ages.

Theory Links Alzheimer’s To Diabetes

May, 2006
Thousands of Alzheimer’s Patients to Receive Diabetes Drug
(AP)WASHINGTON A provocative new theory suggests that one root cause of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is linked to diabetes – a theory about to be tested in thousands of AD patients given the diabetes drug Avandia in hopes of slowing brain decay. It’s a scary scenario: AD already is expected to skyrocket as the population grays. If the new theory is right, the nation’s current obesity-fueled epidemic of Type 2 diabetes could worsen that toll. But proponents see potential good news: If diabeticlike changes in the way brain cells use sugar to generate energy truly trigger AD in at least some patients, then maybe doctors could intervene early and slow down that degeneration. A preliminary experiment involving 511 AD patients found signals that Avandia might help – albeit in people who lack a gene that spurs more aggressive AD. Those results, combined with other evidence that the diabetes pathway is important, have Avandia maker Glaxo- SmithKline poised to open three Phase III clinical trials this summer to test whether the diabetes drug, also called rosiglitazone, might protect certain patients’ brains. Diabetes has long been listed a risk factor for AD later in life because it damages blood vessels that supply the brain.

Alzheimer’s Association Announces New Initiative to Speed Safe Drug Development

The Alzheimer’s Association has announced a new initiative to elevate the urgency of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and ensure that safe treatments to delay, slow or prevent the disease are developed, tested and made available to the public as quickly as possible.

Today, 4.5 million people have AD in the U.S. and as baby boomers age that number could grow to as many as 16 million by 2050. Not only is AD devastating for those afflicted and their families, but it also threatens to overwhelm the U.S. economy and bankrupt the healthcare system.

There are more than 50 compounds being tested to treat AD and nearly every major pharmaceutical company is working on this problem, as are private organizations, such as the Alzheimer’s Association, as well as the federal government. The pace of discovery is expected to pick up dramatically in the future and the Alzheimer’s Association wants to ensure that all promising treatments can be tested and, if safe and effective, made available to the public.

The Alzheimer’s Association Effective Treatments Initiative will bring together a multi-disciplinary advisory committee of leading scientists, individuals with earlystage AD and their families, experts on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process and others to guide the Initiative. The Association will also seek input from government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry. The Initiative has four goals:

• Educate the public about value of clinical studies and increase enrollment in such studies.
• Raise profile and priority of AD at all levels of drug development.
• Involve patients in drug development and review processes.

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