October 20, 2014
Today's Top Alzheimer's News
Researchers say that funding remains the single most important impediment to stoping Alzheimer's by 2025, the Dolby family's strategy to combat Alzheimer's, and Sen. Ed Markey talks about his commitment to Alzheimer's funding (read more).
Must reads
- An October 20, 2014 MedicalXpress article reported that leading researchers say that "national Alzheimer's plan milestones must be strengthened to meet goal by 2025." According to the article, "According to the authors of the newly published article, who include U.S.-based academic and industry scientists across all disciplines of Alzheimer's research, "Many prominent investigators believe the prospect of delaying the onset of disabling symptoms within a decade is an attainable goal, provided we can surmount several scientific, administrative, and most importantly, financial impediments." The authors continue, "Inadequate funding remains the single most important impediment to progress in achieving the research goal of the National Plan.""
- An October 17, 2014 San Francisco Business Times article highlighted the Dolby family's "strategy for funding Alzheimer's-focused startups." According to the article, "Alzheimer's disease is a tough foe, derailing millions of lives and throwing a handful of once-promising drugs to the clinical trial trash heap. But the family of Ray Dolby, the founder of sound technology company Dolby Laboratories who was diagnosed with the memory-stealing neurodegenerative disease, is stepping into the fray…Dolby Family Ventures recently invested $2 million in PharmatrophiX, a preclinical Menlo Park small-molecule drug developer, and $500,000 in Cortexyme, a San Francisco company targeting a pathogen it believes leads to neurons going astray."
Politics
- An October 20, 2014 Boston Globe article reported that Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) "said he is seeking to double or triple spending on the National Institutes of Health and to cure Alzheimer’s disease by 2025 as part of a plan he wrote in the House that became law."
Notable losses
- An October 19, 2014 Buffalo News (NY) reported that former New York City comptroller Ned Regan passed away from Alzheimer's at the age of 84. According to the article, "As county executive, a post he held from 1972 to 1978, Regan implemented what some considered innovative economic development programs, including the reorganization of the Erie County Industrial Development Agency and establishment of a foreign trade zone in Buffalo. At the start of his county executive term, he was lauded for cutting the county property tax rate for the first time in seven years."