Alzheimer's in the U.S.; a figure that is expected to more 3

than double by 2050. The memory-robbing disease kills

more than 120,000 Americans a year, making it the sixth

leading cause of death.

Alzheimer's disease is a devastating disease of

progressive dementia, where people can lose various aspects

of their cognitive functioning, their ability to remember key

things and people.

Genius not aware of the fact that she can ask me the same

question 10 times 10 minutes, oh maybe nine and a half.

The US has spent billions on research but still hasn't been

able to develop a drug that targets the cause of the

disease.

We know that it's a costly disease and the burden of that

cost continues to grow exponentially. A drug

for any company that could treat Alzheimer's successfully would

be seen as just a goldmine for Wall Street and the huge gift to

society. Now one

biotech company thinks it's cracked Alzheimer's tricky code

and a drug known as aducanemab now sold as Aduhelm. This

is an approval for Biogen This is a huge stock event to

50% pop on this FDA approval. But Biden's reported only a

fraction of estimated sales, the company's share price has nearly

halved. Major insurers haven't decided whether to cover the

treatment, which Biogen originally priced at roughly

$56,000 per year. But now the company is bringing that down by

about 50% to hopefully boost sales. In all this comes as the

FDA itself phases investigations into its edge home decision,

which went against the advice of its own advisors.

There's been a real mixed reception among doctors because

of the lack of completely convincing data supporting

whether the drug works.

So the question is who will be prescribing this? Who will be

monitoring it? Who will have access to it and who's going to

pay for it?

The US spends roughly $3 billion on Alzheimer's and dementia

research every year. That's up 360%. Over the past five years,

spending on people with Alzheimer's is said to cost

Medicare $599 billion by 2050.

The fact is, is that Alzheimer's is not just a disease of the

individual who has it. It is a burden on also individuals who

are caregivers as well. In 2020, there are over 11 million

Americans who are providing unpaid care for individuals with

Alzheimer's, that unpaid care is costly to them and to their

family.

I'm Eugenia Zukerman, and I have Alzheimers

I'm Dick Novik retired from the broadcasting business to be able

to take care of my wife. Once I heard she was diagnosed with

Alzheimer's. Eugenia was diagnosed three years ago, every

senior walked around the house with the glasses on their

foreheads and wear my glasses. But this got beyond that this

got to you know, it constantly asked me the same question a

certain amount of disorientation.

My daughters were saying to me Mom, something is wrong with

you. You're not sounding okay. We have to take you to the

hospital and get you tested. I said no way. But of course, I

ended up being taken to the hospital and being looked at

very carefully.

One of the biggest shocks to us was if you go to any other

specialist, gastroenterologist and they give you a medicine for

your stomachache. with Alzheimer's, there has been

really no commonly prescribed medication.

Alzheimer's is a notoriously difficult disease to treat.

But there are a couple drugs available there, you know, at

this point many decades old, and they can help with some of the

symptoms associated with Alzheimer's disease, but in

general, they don't work very well.

So there hadn't been a new Alzheimer's drug that proved in

almost two decades when ad you helm came along, and nothing out

there to try to actually affect the underlying drivers of the

disease.

That's where Biogen comes in. In recent years, his portfolio of

other drugs has faced growing generic competition. In 2020,

the company posted $13.4 billion in revenue, and near six and a

half percent drop year over year, researchers designed Agia

home to target one of the diseases defining

characteristics.

What happens with an Alzheimer's disease is that there's a faulty

cleavage of amyloid in a sense that it results in the

production of these insoluble and sticky amyloid beta we call

them and when this forms, what happens is that that accumulate

in the brain and around it, surrounding it are signs of

inflammation, oxidation and brain cell death.

So Lily has a very similar drug to Biogen is called Diana Mab,

which it has been developing and had some really promising

earlier stage results that showed not just that it clears

the amyloid plaques from the brain but also that there is an

effect on cognition.

But the path to an FDA approved Alzheimer's drug has been

riddled with failures. Over 200 potential medicines failed their

trials over the past decade, and in early 2019 Aduhelm almost

became one of them.