Funding and Progress in Alzheimer's Research
Interesting views on the structure and progress of the Alzheimer's research community - and its funding - can be found in a recent BusinessWeek article: "A few years behind Alzhemed and Flurizan are promising treatments [that] provoke an immune response against the disease. Nearly 60 other drugs designed to modify the disease are also in clinical trials, including one from AC Immune of Switzerland that caught the attention of biotech giant Genentech Inc. best known for its cancer treatments. Genentech just announced plans to invest $300 million for the rights to AC Immune's drug. ... It's a whole new era. At least some of these medications are likely to work, and once we have disease-modifying drugs, we have opened the door to prevention. ... Certainly any disease could benefit from more funding, but with Alzheimer's the need for effective treatments is especially urgent. It is the only major cause of death in the U.S. where the numbers are getting worse, not better. That's because Alzheimer's is a disease of success. As people live longer and benefit from new treatments for common killers such as heart disease and cancer, the odds they will succumb to Alzheimer's increase."
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/07_02/b4016060.htm