Slow Sunday mornings are perfect for perusing magazine racks in my local bookstore. In full disclosure I am usually interested in innovative design and travel but I couldn't avoid the headline of the latest issue of Fortune. If you follow the blog with any regularity, I attempt to humanize the history of Alzheimer's Disease, follow the economics, and clarify claims and forward thinking research findings often bolstered to a frenzied pitch. Biogen specifically was featured in a recent blog but this May cover story cited "229 Alzheimer's Drugs Failed from 2002 to 2012" and "Alzheimer's Cost the US $214 billion in 2014. I was anticipating context and good science but instead I was reminded of the source of the story, Fortune is self-proclaimed as "The world’s most respected business publication delivers expert advice to help you optimize your career along with in-depth analysis of technology, business, and economic trends and breakthroughs."
| In full disclosure I found the story on page 78 featured with two other articles, Smart Guns: They're Ready. Are We and Billionaires vs. Big Oil. The article clearly states the poor success rate of drug development in Alzheimer's disease and even mentioned the dose dependent findings of the Biogen agent that led to greater risk of brain swelling. Preceded by hastened cognitive decline in another promising trial by Eli Lilly, and other therapies stopped during animal models or in human testing there hasn't been much but a potential large scale financial pay out to spur ongoing efforts. One thing that surprised me was Biogen history--it includes groundbreaking Multiple Sclerosis medications. There are some similarities if you examine the industry history--Multiple Sclerosis being another therapeutic area with evolving diagnostic criteria that may or may not include the presence of a discernible lesion. The motivation may be summed up by the following quote from the article--"If anti-Alzheimer's drugs were ultimately proven to be effective as preventive meds--and patients took them early and often in the same way that millions take statins to stave off heart disease--the business model could be extraordinarily profitable". There is no mention of the potential amelioration of pain and suffering of families and those afflicted with Alzheimer's... |   Perhaps we need to look to Shakespeare for a cautionary tale: Macbeth: How does your patient, doctor? Doctor: Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick-coming fancies that keep her from rest. Macbeth: Cure her of that! Canst thou not minister to a mind deceased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon her heart. Doctor: Therein the patient must minister to himself. |
