It is rare that the words “progress” and “Alzheimer’s Disease” are used (positively) in the same sentence.
Maybe that’s about to change.
Last week the EMA's CHMP adopted a qualification opinion that positive/negative PET imaging of amyloid can be used as a biomarker to identify patients in clinical trials with predementia Alzheimer's disease (AD) who are at increased risk to have an underlying neuropathology. Now an Eli Lilly & Co. diagnostic that detects the presence of proteins in the brain that are related to Alzheimer's disease is FDA-approved.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, “The tool could enable clinicians to detect Alzheimer's earlier and more accurately in patients at the earliest sign of memory problems—a potential boon to treatment and developing drugs against the disease.”
A lack of ability to reliably diagnose patients in the early stages of the Alzheimer's disease has hampered research. Some experts believe that investigational drug trials have failed because patients enrolled in such studies already had progressed too far for the treatments to be effective.
Proponents of using florbetapir and similar agents that are being developed have said that such technology will accelerate research by helping to accurately identify people at high risk of developing the condition and to enroll such people in therapeutic trials.
The test uses a chemical called florbetapir, known by the brand name Amyvid, which is a radioactive agent that tags clumps of a sticky substance called an amyloid. Amyloid proteins are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. The chemical, which costs $1,600 per dose, then is detected using a brain imaging technique called positron emission tomography, known as PET scans.
The Journal raises an important point, “Some experts have questioned how useful the test is since no treatments are available that significantly alter the course of the disease. But some doctors believe that patients may find a diagnosis helpful for planning purposes or just to know for certain that they have Alzheimer's.”
Question – will payers pay?
If a tree falls in a forest …
