Research on Alzheimer’s not promising
Alzheimer’s was first recognized as a disease 101 year ago. As of now the government has spent more than $8 billion on Alzheimer research. Private industries have spent billions more. Even so, progress on this disease has been slow.
The drug industry’s heavy investment in Alzheimer’s research has to do with huge potential profits. With the aging of the large baby boomer population, and longer life expectancy, demand for products that offer a cure is expected to be enormous.
Things have not panned out the way the drug industry and other researchers expected. New drug candidates are failing trails, and old drugs are the subject of lawsuits as consumers charge the drug industry with caring more about profits and not enough about patient safety. To make matters worse for the drug companies, patents on old drugs are expiring.
Much of recent research has been directed at understanding the normal process by which brain cells break down. So far this has been the biggest obstacle. That is because there are many events involved in brain function, and breakdown can happen at any point in the process. Every point represents a possible point of intervention, but each intervention can cause a cascade of unintended changes. Although some researchers are optimistic that a cure will be found, others like Eric Karran, chief scientific officer at Eli Lilly are less optimistic.
