ABPI report highlights progress in R&D for Alzheimer's disease

The treatment of Alzheimer's disease, for so long an area of great unmetmedical need despite the advent of drugs to treat the condition in the last decade, is set to undergo something of a revolution as the last 20 years of research starts to bear fruit, according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

A new ABPI report, entitled Target Alzheimer's, notes that, for a long time, the first medicines to treat Alzheimer's, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors such as Pfizer's Aricept (donepezil) and Novartis' Exelon (rivastigmine), "were condemned as too expensive." This view is short-sighted, said ABPI director general Trevor Jones, as the report underlines the advances that are being made in the development of new medicines, "giving fresh hope to those at risk from the disease but also [offering] the prospect of great financial savings."

Vaccine hopes?