Controversial new Alzheimer's drug in the spotlight
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After decades without progress, this June a new treatment was approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration - Biogen's Aduhelm. Ivana Davidovic looks into why this process has been so controversial that is now under investigation by a federal watchdog.
Aaron Kesselheim, a Harvard Medical School professor, served on the FDA’s advisory committee that considered Aduhelm and voted against its approval. He explains why he decided to resign from his post and what consequences there could be for future research and also for Medicare and Medicaid for covering such an expensive drug.
Geri Taylor has participated in the Aduhelm trial since 2015 and both her and her husband Jim believe that the drug has slowed her decline.
Jason Karlawish - a practising physician, co-director of the Penn Memory Centre and the author of The Problem of Alzheimer’s book - says that more money should be spent on providing carers for the vast majority of Alzheimer's patients and that people should not be forced to choose between cure and care.
PHOTO: 3d illustration of the human brain with Alzheimer’s disease/Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me, Ivana Davidovich, in today's program. |
| 0:06.3 | Finally, a longer-awaited breakthrough for Alzheimer's patients. |
| 0:09.8 | After decades of no progress this summer, a new treatment has been approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration. |
| 0:16.1 | This has brought tremendous hope to the community. |
| 0:20.0 | There's never been a drug before that has slowed |
| 0:22.3 | decline. But the approval of biogen's adiocanomab has been highly controversial. So much so, |
| 0:28.3 | the U.S. watchdog ordered an investigation into the whole process. This aducanamab could be kind |
| 0:33.8 | of a watershed moment. Are the regulations really working to help improve the |
| 0:38.1 | health and well-being of people with serious and life-threatening diseases? Or are they more serving |
| 0:42.9 | kind of business interests that are seeking to get things out as quick as possible and |
| 0:46.9 | maximize the return on investment? That's all coming up in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:55.7 | I'm Jerry Taylor and I am living with Alzheimer's. |
| 1:01.1 | And I'm Jim Taylor. I'm Jerry's husband and her care partner. |
| 1:07.1 | Do you find it easy to live in the moment? |
| 1:11.3 | I can only live in the moment. |
| 1:14.9 | It's very difficult for me to hold on to different thoughts at one time. |
| 1:21.3 | Jerry Taylor was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease eight years ago. |
| 1:25.0 | The retired nurse first spotted something was wrong in 2012, when one day |
| 1:29.1 | she couldn't recognize herself in the bathroom mirror. She was 69 and had recently retired. |
| 1:35.5 | Before that, she had been leading a staff meeting when she realized she had no idea what she was |
| 1:40.2 | talking about. Now, eight years on, she increasingly has to rely on her husband, Jim, |
| 1:45.1 | for support. Living with Alzheimer's, it's sort of another world that you have to step into. |
... |
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