Over 1000 Clinical trial in the past 10 years and no treatments - what's going on?
Hi everyone - Unfortunately, I have a very disturbing answer to that question. Almost all the money we donate to research goes to academic institutions that do research - research that results in papers being published and scientist going to conferences. Academic research is not geared toward finding treatments -I think most people don't know this.
On the other hand, Pharma companies and Biotech's are in the business of developing drugs to treat diseases like AD. So why have they failed so miserably spending literally billions of dollars with no treatments? The answer is )also) something that most people are not aware of.
Big Pharma and Biotech companies have drug discovery pipeline that are designed to identify a single gene or protein that can be used to treat the disease state or it's symptoms. This approach is a financially sound model since when they find something they own the drug and make billions of dollars. I have worked in the industry for over 25 years and have a deep understanding of how they work. All of the treatments that have made it to clinical trials for AD have focused on effecting a single gene or protein and they have failed. AD is caused by the dysfunction of multiple genes and proteins, as are many of the other diseases of aging. I would love to hear the thoughts and comments of other in the community on what I have said here - I know it's pretty stark but it is accurate.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts based on your experience. I can understand your feelings based on what you wrote. What would be a good way for this situation to change? What do you think should be done? Scott Team Member
Hi Scott,
Unfortunately, the situation will not change anytime soon. In fact, internal funding for AD research (within biotech and pharma) is decreasing because of the high failure rate of candidate drugs. AD is a complex disease with many genes and proteins involved, and the solution will be complex. That being said, myself and two of my colleagues, all of which have family members with AD, have formed a private company and we are funding it on our own. Rest assured I did not post this to raise funds - we are not accepting outside funding at this point. Our approach is very different from traditional drug development - we are not looking for "magic bullets" to treat the symptoms of the disease. In fact our treatment is not a drug at all. It is a multi-component delivery system based on an exhaustive survey of research data using complex modeling, and a new approach to modify how multiple genes and proteins can be reconfigured to a pre-disease state. None of us were born with AD and our bodies actually contain the information on how to reverse the causal factors. The short answer is there is hope
and are initial pilot data looks very promising. I will provide additional information as it becomes available.
, fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing and we'll definitely be looking for further news as you progress. - Warmly, Donna (team member)
