"As Alzheimer’s Drug Developers Give Up On Today’s Patients, Where Is The Outrage?" - Sharon Begley
The lack of progress against Alzheimer’s disease has brought somewhat less outrage. Although the latest analysis of experimental Alzheimer’s drugs finds that literally zero are being tested in late-stage clinical trials to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer’s, no patient advocacy groups uttered a peep in protest. “We need a Larry Kramer,” said Samuel Gandy, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, psychiatry, and associate director of the Alzheimer’s disease Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, referring to the AIDS activist. Instead, he said, patients and their families adopt the fatalistic attitude that dementia is an inevitable consequence of aging, and funders see spending $1 on curing a child as ethically more justified than spending $1 on an 80 year old, who’s closer to the grave.
- Samuel Gandy, MD, PhD, Professor, Neurology, Psychiatry, Associate Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, The Mount Sinai Center for Cognitive Health and NFL Neurological Care