Panel
Alzheimer's Disease: Rewriting the Playbook
Milken InstituteLaTese Briggs, Michela Gallagher, Todd Rainwater, Lauren Miller Rogen, Garen Staglin, Garen King Jr., Daniel Arbus, Elizabeth Scharf, Amir, Mark Reuthmeyer
- The number of people living with Alzheimer's in the US is projected to rise from 5.7 million currently to 14 million by 2050, driving the annual economic cost of care from $277 billion to $1.1 trillion, a trajectory described as economically unsustainable.
- Agene Bio plans to initiate a Phase 3 trial to delay the progression of Alzheimer's and dementia, while also developing late-stage discovery programs specifically targeting mild cognitive impairment.
- A treatment aimed at reducing a specific brain signature during the prodromal phase of Alzheimer's is expected to be tested within an 18-month protocol, with research suggesting that delaying progression to dementia by three years during this decade-long phase could cut prevalence by one-third.
- The TAO Consortium and related entities, such as the Rainwater Charitable Foundation, anticipate that trials for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) will likely yield the first FDA-approved treatment for tauopathies before Alzheimer's trials succeed, as PSP trials are predicted to be quicker, cheaper, and involve younger patients with fewer confounding variables.
- One Mind is exploring a $10 billion global social impact bond in collaboration with the World Bank, WHO, and OECD, with a goal to issue the bond in early 2019 if conditions permit, alongside a 10-year plan expected to be finalized by the end of the year to accelerate diagnostics and cures.
- Garen Staglin plans to draft legislation for a 50% tax credit for new neurological research, particularly within consortium models, with expectations that the bill will be on the floor within three months and potentially ratified as part of the next year's Tax Reform Act.
- Latisse Briggs hopes to mobilize community nodes and eliminate stigma through the One Mind Institute's focus on open science, while the Rainwater Prize intends to award multi-million dollar prizes for the first FDA-approved treatment for a tauopathy and smaller annual awards for specified tauopathy advancements.
- Lauren Miller-Rogan and Hilarity for Charity are focusing on early intervention and prevention by establishing baselines for patients in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, advocating for healthy lifestyle interventions before age 50, and utilizing cognitive exercises supported by over 800 apps to delay dementia symptoms.
- Current research initiatives include the ADNI database to model clinical trial enrollment, a simple blood test for diagnosis moving toward feasibility, and efforts to combine databases for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) to study comorbidity and potential environmental triggers for dementia.
- Industry analysis suggests pharmaceutical giants are exiting the amyloid sector due to lack of hope or misaligned targets, whereas companies like Biogen are advancing anti-tau antibodies and ASO therapies, with a consensus that combining therapies and precision medicine is the ultimate path to success.
- Caregiving challenges are highlighted by the statistic that 15% of caregivers are under age 40, creating a critical need for long-term care plans to support working individuals managing 24/7 caregiving duties as the disease prevalence increases.
- The NIH Alzheimer's budget has risen to $1.3 billion but is considered insufficient; speakers predict this budget will increment higher with increased public attention, though significant risks remain regarding the "Death Valley" gap between basic science proof of concept and human demonstration.