Scientists stop Alzheimers in its tracks

[Beldaran]

In another stunning achievement, scientists have managed to stop the progression Alzheimers disease.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1039677/Daily-pill-halts-Alzheimers-hailed-biggest-breakthrough-disease-100-years.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2471076/Alzheimerandrsquos-sufferers-given-hope-by-new-generation-of-drugs.html

[Blisspath]

I read about this in a trade magazine the other day..it would be awesome if it works this well. I tend to be skeptical..I have seen far too many drugs look promising only to fail in the 2nd and 3rd trials. I was surprised to read in one of the articles that the NHS doesn't pay for Aricept, which is the currently the best treatment for dementia/Alzheimers.

[Beldaran]

I tend to be skeptical..

I thought you believed in god?

[Blisspath]

I thought you believed in god?

didn't you hear Nietzsche killed that dude years ago?
Here is another article on Rember...or as we call it methylene blue. I doubt they could get a patent for it in the U.S...hell I may be able to mix up a batch in the bathtub and get a head start on my impending senility.
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/new-alzheimers.html

[Beldaran]

That's definitely something that scares me about private medical research. It's simply not profitable to cure a disease. It's profitable to treat symptoms.

You cure a disease, you kill your revenue stream as soon as your product hits shelves.

[AtmaWeapon]

Now all we have to do is wait for 10 years of clinical trials so it can be cleared by the FDA. Then, it'll be on the market and ridiculously expensive for a few years, and just as it approaches the generic phase, someone will release a study that shows it increases the risk of (heart disease | cancer) by a small percentage, and we'll get a huge media scaremonger package that makes us bring flaming pitchforks into the buttocks of anyone suggesting that from a utilitarian standpoint it doesn't matter.

[Beldaran]

Now all we have to do is wait for 10 years of clinical trials so it can be cleared by the FDA. Then, it'll be on the market and ridiculously expensive for a few years, and just as it approaches the generic phase, someone will release a study that shows it increases the risk of (heart disease | cancer) by a small percentage, and we'll get a huge media scaremonger package that makes us bring flaming pitchforks into the buttocks of anyone suggesting that from a utilitarian standpoint it doesn't matter.

I guess there is a cloud to every silver lining, but I still think you are exaggerating.

One of the comments reads:


Assuming the drug continues to show good safety, it should be made available to people in need without waiting another 4 years. Mechanisms for distributing drugs that are still under study, without disrupting those studies, were worked out almost 2 decades ago for AIDS.

Now, that's just some guy talking out of his ass, but then again, so are you. So it's not necessarily a doom and gloom situation. This drug may be made available for alzheimers patients sooner than you portend.

[Breaker]

it doesn't necessarily cure alzheimers. sometimes i think im the only person on AGN that reads these posted articles. they're proposing that it literally "stops" alzheimers from progressing, aka getting worse. it doesn't reverse damage that's already done to patients that are so far gone they can't even remember they're name.

this treatment, if successful, will only help those that are just beginning to show signs of the disease. every year we hear about some "breakthrough" drug that's going to cure aids, alzheimers, cancer, and make the world great, only to never ever hear of it again. this might simply be an overly exageratted claim in an attempt for researchers to get knowledge of their work out there and get more funding.

that's still better than nothing i guess.

[Beldaran]

it doesn't necessarily cure alzheimers. sometimes i think im the only person on AGN that reads these posted articles.

Who said it "cured" Alzheimer's?

[Prrkitty]

Paul's aunt has Alzheimers. It's progressed so bad now that she doesn't know anyone anymore. She's only approx 10-15 years older then I am. It was very agonizing thru the years watching Aunt Marie's personality and even her being of self... just disintegrate and disappear.

She was such a vibrant woman... so full of enjoyment of life. :(

[moocow]

My great grandmother had Alzheimers... she was so far gone that before she passed away, she spent her days in the fetal position on her bed...

[Blisspath]

Let me first say..I'm not defending drug companies, their profit margin is very high but...Whether you cite the industry's number(800mill) or Nader's(100mill) it takes a lot of money to get a drug on the market. Only one in five drugs that get to the clinical drug phase make it to market and only one in twelve make it to trials in the first place. That is why the FDA gives companies patents to recoup their R&D cost. That means they get a monopoly for up to twenty years for normal drugs and longer if the drug is an orphan drug(one that helps less than 250k people) After that time anybody can make the drug. An example when Zoloft was brand only it cost us over a dollar a pill to buy from the wholesaler now that it is available as a generic(sertaline) we can get 500 for around 12 bucks. I would advocate reducing the patent time..but I'm not ready to turn all of the funding over to the government...meaning us taxpayers.

[The_Amaster]

*looks at article* Cool.

*looks at thread* Well, even if the drug does have side effects or gets pulled, at least the idea is sound. 20 years of tweaking or so and we might have a viable product.

[rock_nog]

it doesn't necessarily cure alzheimers. sometimes i think im the only person on AGN that reads these posted articles. they're proposing that it literally "stops" alzheimers from progressing, aka getting worse. it doesn't reverse damage that's already done to patients that are so far gone they can't even remember they're name.

this treatment, if successful, will only help those that are just beginning to show signs of the disease. every year we hear about some "breakthrough" drug that's going to cure aids, alzheimers, cancer, and make the world great, only to never ever hear of it again. this might simply be an overly exageratted claim in an attempt for researchers to get knowledge of their work out there and get more funding.

that's still better than nothing i guess.
Given what Alzheimer's does to your brain, I think stopping the progression of it is about the best we can realistically hope for. I mean, it basically rots your brain. There really just is no conceivable way of fixing that, at least any time in the forseeable future - and even if there were some way to repair the damage, with stem cell research or something, it would still require intensive therapy to regain any lost functionality (but then, that would be better than nothing, of course - just pointing out that while we may someday get very good at treating it, there will likely never be the "miracle cure" that people hope for)