Push for Alzheimer's treatment grows along with numbers

New drugs in the pipeline have yielded positive early reports, says a researcher involved in the studies.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. April 9, 2007.

Washington -- More than 5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer's disease -- a 10% increase over the past five years. The number is guaranteed to grow as baby boomers bump into the disease's greatest risk factor: increasing age.

Those figures are from a new report by the Alzheimer's Assn. released at a March 20 Senate hearing. It includes the estimate that someone in America develops Alzheimer's disease every 72 seconds. Without a cure or at least treatments to slow the progress of the illness, the rate could accelerate to one every 33 seconds by mid-century.

Given the growing incidence, the pressure is on to develop effective treatments and even better, a cure, said researchers testifying before the Senate subcommittee on retirement security and aging. Panel Chair Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D, Md.) introduced legislation the previous week to boost funding for Alzheimer's research at the National Institutes of Health.

New drugs are in the pipeline and could arrive at the Food and Drug Administration by fall for possible approval next year, Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, director of Thomas Jefferson University's Farber Institute for Neurosciences, in Philadelphia, told the Senate panel. Dr. Gandy's laboratory is participating in clinical trials for two of the new drugs.

So far, the FDA has approved several drugs that temporarily slow symptoms in some people, but the medicines being tested are intended to attack the disease directly. Among them are two that target the amyloid plaques that are a molecular hallmark of Alzheimer's, Dr. Gandy said. Reports on the new entities are very encouraging, he added. "These drugs are safe. Patients tolerate them well. And they appear to show significant positive impact, slowing progression of the disease."