Alzheimer’s Disease: A Growing Market Ready To Bear Fruit
Why are so many major pharmaceutical and biotech companies feverishly racing
to develop new treatments for this growing disease? The answer is simple. The market for new therapies to treat this debilitating disease is going to explode over the next twenty years. Right now, there are only three drugs approved by the FDA to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and all do nothing to reverse the pathological process. The current approved drugs are only effective in certain patients and their benefits do not stand the test of time. Basically, there is no good treatment today for this disease that will someday rival cancer in frequency and market size. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are keenly aware of this huge potential market and the revenue it could bring.
Today, Alzheimer’s disease affects close to 20 million people worldwide and
four million in this country. The four million in the US is expected to climb to 14
million by 2002. The disease affects 10% of people over the age of 65 today and more than half
of those over the age of 85. These numbers are expected to dramatically increase over the next 20 years as the
general population gets older and people live longer. The total healthcare cost of this disease is close to $100
billion per year. This market is an untapped gold mine waiting to be explored. Companies know this and are investing millions of dollars to develop new therapies. Add the explosion in genomic technology to the mix and you also have a race to exploit the genetic basis of this disease for new drug development.Â
Who are the companies on the forefront of developing new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease?
Let me start with Axonyx
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was reported to have identified a protein in the body that acts as a signature marker for developing the disease. This protein is very specific for Alzheimer’s, and the company is developing a diagnostic blood test to measure it. If Alzheimer’s is diagnosed early, new drugs may be able to reverse the pathologic process which occurs in the brains of these patients.
Elan Pharmaceuticals
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created much excitement last year when it reported outstanding lab data on a new vaccine to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The company was first able to genetically alter mice to simulate the disease in mice. It was able to produce the buildup of plaque in the brains of mice, called Beta-amyloid, so often seen in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors believe this diseased plaque is toxic to normal nerve cells in the brain and causes the symptoms of memory loss so often observed in patients. It then treated these mice with a newly developed vaccine and found 75% of the mice were totally free of plaque twelve months later. The company, in conjunction with American Home Products, is working on a human vaccine that has been shown to be safe in early clinical trials. Large-scale human testing is scheduled to start early next year.
Amgen
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Scios
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Neotherapeutics
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Aventis SAÂ
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is using a different approach to treat this disease. The company has a drug in late-stage human trials which blocks the toxic inflammatory reactions often seen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. By inhibiting these reactions, which are thought to be stimulated by the build-up of plaque, damage to surrounding neurons can be limited.
In addition to the biotech, the major pharmaceutical companies are making a major push into the Alzheimer’s market. Pfizer already has the drug Aricept on the market and recently Novartis AG received FDA approval for its Alzheimer’s drug Exelon. Unfortunately, both drugs only alleviate the symptoms of the disease for a short time and do not treat the underlying basis of it. Both are only temporary, short-term solutions to treating this disease and will not stand the test of time. Pfizer is also testing its blockbuster drug used to treat arthritis, Celebrex, for use against Alzheimer’s disease. Celebrex inhibits the Cox-2 enzyme, the enzyme implicated in the pain of arthritic disease. This enzyme has also been implicated in the inflammatory process described in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Merck’s Vioxx, the other Cox-2 inhibitor on the market for arthritic pain, is also being tested in a similar fashion. Both Pfizer’s Celebrex and Merck’s Vioxx are already billion-dollar drugs in the arthritis market. If they prove to be effective against Alzheimer’s disease, the additional revenue growth would be enormous.
In addition to progress in new drugs, several genomic companies are weighing in with their technology to find new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The genetic basis for Alzheimer’s disease is just beginning to unfold and several companies are on the forefront of discovering genes which make people susceptible to developing this disease. From these genetic discoveries, new tests can be developed to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease early on. New drugs can be developed which could potentially prevent the disease from ever advancing. Curagen
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GeneLogic
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Companies involved in analyzing the unique differences in our DNA which cause people to be susceptible to disease will also benefit from the genetic hunt for Alzheimer’s disease. These differences are called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms or SNPs. SNP analysis is a hot area in genomic research today and companies like
Orchid BioSciences
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