Beginning of the End for Alzheimer's

Sonali Doshi  0:16  
Welcome to Healthcare Policy pop. I'm Sonali Doshi. It's Thursday, December 7 2023.

Today's pop topics: After decades of research, breakthroughs and Alzheimer's treatment are finally coming to fruition. Mark Roithmayr is the CEO of Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation or ADDF, and tells us that these developments are actually right on time and in line with breakthroughs in other diseases. 

Mark Roithmayr  0:44  
Exciting times. And what we're seeing is the first cracks in new treatments coming forward for Alzheimer's. And if you think about it, you look at cancer cancer took about 100 years to get where it is today. For most disease states, It's a better part of the century. 

Sonali Doshi  0:59  
What's causing the breakthroughs? Well, a couple of things that the ADDF has actually been involved in.

Mark Roithmayr  1:06  
The key to what's caused these first cracks in the wall is simply biomarkers and that there's a PET scan that the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation actually helped develop 15 years ago, that's really enabled this moment. 

Sonali Doshi  1:21  
They're also making strides by looking at Alzheimer's as a whole and especially seeing the treatments in the real world. And up until now, the but was, amyloid is the holy grail; It's the only part of the story. We now know that it's one of multiple parts of the story. We call it the biology of aging, things like information, vascular mitochondrial genetics. They all play into this mix of why people get Alzheimer's.

The drugs are showing 30% effectiveness, which Roithmayr believes is only the beginning. 

Mark Roithmayr  1:54  
They're slowing down the disease progression and imagine over the course of time that slowing down the arc on that is going to become bigger. So we're slowing it down. But how can we get to 50-60-70% and that's where these combine therapies and precision medicine come in. 

Sonali Doshi  2:13  
The prospect of the future his grandchildren might one day live is what keeps right there pushing for progress. If my cognition goes fuzzy tomorrow for the first time, I have options. I have two children in their early 30s. Because of these combined pairs because of what's going to come in now the next 5-10-15-20 years, my children when they get to an age of cognitive fuzziness, they're going to have prescriptions. My grandchildren, they are going to have protocols, protocols that if they stay on these protocols, they're not going to forget their children's names.

You can learn more about the ADDF and all of their work by using the link in the show notes.

Some big news just announced that could change things for patients across the country. CVS has announced they are changing the way that they price their prescriptions. In an announcement earlier this week, the company said they will be revamping the way they reimburse pharmacies for prescription medications. In theory is could make prescription drug pricing simpler and change how much consumers pay for their medicines. CVS says this will bring more transparency to drug pricing, which Patients Rising has always advocated for. A CNN article says quote the new approach named CVS CostVantage will use a simpler formula that includes the cost of the drug, a set markup, and a fee to determine the drugs price and reimbursement with pharmacy benefit managers. We plan to speak to experts on this subject and bring you their view on this announcement next week, right here on this podcast. That's all for today. We're back on Tuesday for another Healthcare Policy Pop a resource of Patients Rising Now. I'm Sonali Joshi. Have a great day.