Sad News for Alzheimer’s Sufferers

I am really disappointed and disheartened to read the news today that drug giants give up on Alzheimer’s cure.

As someone who has witnessed first hand the affects of this debilitating disease I am saddened to learn the likes of Pfizer have decided to downgrade the search for a cure principally as it is costing too much.

I understand that they search continues but am annoyed that it has been reduced. I doubt the search for cancer or AIDS cures would ever be downgraded due to funding so why should this be the case for Alzheimer’s Disease?

As mentioned by the Director of Alzheimer’s Research UK:

At least 12 times as much was spent on cancer research as dementia research, yet dementia cost the country twice as much as cancer.

The facts are stated as follows;

Alzheimer’s affects an estimated 500,000 people in the UK (a further 300,000 have other forms of dementia) and tens of millions worldwide, with the numbers expected to triple by 2050.

It causes amnesia, loss of language, mood changes, apathy, psychosis and aggression.

The latest trials are thought to have failed because the drugs were given to patients too late in the disease process to have an effect, or were unable to pick up subtle changes in cognition over a relatively short period.

And yet with these facts neuroscience departments at the large drug manufacturers are facing the axe.

I am now more than ever determined to raise as much as I can for Alzheimer’s Society when I run my first 10K in November.

The money I raise will be a mere drop in the ocean when compared to what the drugs companies have already invested but anything I can raise can only help provide care and support for Alzheimer’s patients and their carers.

Please help me raise even more for Alzheimer’s Society by sponsoring me and hopefully in some way we may bring relief to those who suffer this awful disease and show the drugs companies that these people and this disease does matter.

UPDATE: Response from Alzheimer’s Society

‘Now is not the time to back away from dementia research. Despite costing the economy more than cancer and heart disease, funding for research into dementia is only a fraction of those conditions.

Currently there are 150 times more clinical trials focusing on treating people in the late stages of cancer than Alzheimer’s disease.One in three people over the age of 65 will die with dementia. More funding for research is urgently needed if we are to defeat the condition once and for all.’

Andrew Chidgey
Director of External Affairs
Alzheimer’s Society