Research on Alzheimer's Drug - Rember - Breaking New Ground

Alzheimer's research is an expensive undertaking, but for those with elderly loved ones, the cost is well worth it. Dementia, a disability that is caused by brain disease or injury, which can lead to memory disorders, affects nearly 700,000 people in the UK alone.

Developing an unprecedented drug is a long and costly project that can take up to 15 years and costs nearly 800 million US dollars. The Alzheimer's Association noted that merely five out of ten thousand compounds investigated constitute successful research levels such that they result in clinical trials, and among those, only one of the trials alone makes it through the approval process to receive endorsement for treatment. But a new Alzheimer's drug, called Rember, is gaining popularity among doctors and scientists and is offering hope to patients. Preliminary trials have suggested that the novel drug can evoke life among the worst diseased affected parts of the brain.

New Study Details Alzheimer's Drug Results

The study was presented in Chicago at the International Conference on Alzheimer's illness and it assessed nearly three hundred fifty people who were diagnosed with moderate Alzheimer's in the UK and Singapore. The group was separated into smaller groups, and three were administered the new drug, Rember, while the fourth group took a placebo, a substance that has no therapeutic effect and is only used for testing purposes.

The results were documented and after nearly fifty weeks, the patients with moderate disease afflictions who were being administered the drug, Rember, had experienced less mental decline, even as much as 80 percent less, in comparison to the patients who were given the placebo. Indeed, the patients who were prescribed Rember did not encounter any considerable descent in their mental process for a period well over nineteen months, and the patients who took the placebo showed increased symptoms. The researchers theorize that the drug is relatively two-and-a-half times more productive than existent drugs called cholinesterase inhibitors.

The research study documented images of the brain and indicated that Rember had its largest effect in the areas linked to memory.

More and more people are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and the figure is increasing as people live longer. A leading professor of the Alzheimer’s disease Society, Clive Ballard, noted that this study is a major breakthrough in the research of this disease. But he also noted that the research has a tremendous way to go foregoing availability for treatment to patients.

Further Tests of the Alzheimer's Drug - Rember - Will Determine if the Drug is Cost Efficient

If future research studies of Rember are as triumphant, scientists predict that the new drug might be ready for distribution by the next four or five years. And at that point, it will be further assessed by Nice, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which is an independent organization responsible for promoting good health, to determine if the drug, which will most likely be expensive to administer on a daily basis, is cost efficient. The issue at hand will be whether or not the drug, Rember, is advantageous enough to justify the cost for the NHS, the National Health Service, which is the largest public ally funded health service.

Chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Trust, Rebecca Wood, noted that Nice's preliminary cost estimations were distorted because they did not take into consideration the billions a year caring for these patients already costs.

Alzheimer’s Charities Caution That Drug May Not Be Available to Many Due to Cost

Alzheimer’s charities commented that the new drug, which is praised as a distinguished breakthrough in the remedy of the disease, could be withheld from patients by the NHS for reasons such as the expense-per-patient ratio.

Various criteria, however, such as the influence the drug could have on patients’ quality of life, were difficult to put a price on, Wood added. Ms. Wood also mentioned that Nice is examining unreasonable criteria and, provided that this does not change, patients could be negatively affected.

More Alzheimer's Research is Necessary

Researchers comment that the results of this study are preliminary and no definite decisions have been made yet as to the availability of Alzheimer’s drug, Rember.

For further reading:

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2475162/Patients-could-be-denied-breakthrough-Alzheimers-drug-charities-warn.html
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1039677/Daily-pill-halts-Alzheimers-hailed-biggest-breakthrough-disease-100-years.html
• http://www.news-medical.net/?id=40380