Premium
Are We Prepared to Deal With the Alzheimer's Disease Pandemic?
Author(s) -
Holtzman J L
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1038/clpt.2010.84
Subject(s) - pandemic , disease , clinical trial , medicine , clinical pharmacology , population , setback , covid-19 , intensive care medicine , gerontology , pharmacology , political science , environmental health , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
The recent publication of the results of the tarenflurbil trial in which a promising γ‐secretase inhibitor failed to show efficacy in treating the sporadic form of Alzheimer's disease represents yet another setback in our efforts to develop disease‐modifying agents for the treatment of this dreaded condition. 1 Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a line of promising agents that have failed to show any benefit when tested in well‐designed clinical trials. Given that those reaching the age of 85 years have a 50% chance of developing this condition, such failures present not only a societal challenge but a very disturbing prospect for each of us. Furthermore, with the graying of the world's population, the sporadic form of Alzheimer's disease is becoming a major burden on our already limited health‐care resources. It is estimated that today there are 4–5 million individuals in the United States with this disease and a total of 100 million worldwide. By the year 2050, these numbers are projected to increase to 14 million in the United States and 280 million worldwide. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2010) 88 4, 563–565. doi: 10.1038/clpt.2010.84