Monthly Archives: March 2012

OPKO Health and The Scripps Research Institute Announce Global License Agreement for a Novel Compound That Blocks …

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MIAMI & JUPITER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

OPKO Health, Inc. (NYSE: OPK - News) and The Scripps Research Institute today announced a global agreement for the development and commercialization of SR 3306, a novel compound discovered by scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute that blocks the destruction of brains cells in animal models of Parkinsons disease. Under the terms of the agreement, The Scripps Research Institute has granted to OPKO Health exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize SR 3306 and related compounds that inhibit a class of enzymes called jun-N-terminal kinsases (JNK) that play an important role in neuron survival. The new compound, a small molecule known as SR-3306, would potentially be the first to protect the brain from the ravages of Parkinson's disease.

This licensing agreement will help insure that the development of this promising compound keeps moving forward, said Scripps Research Professor Philip LoGrasso, whose laboratory has led the research on the compound to date. This is one of the best opportunities we have for the development of an effective neuroprotective treatment for Parkinsons patients.

We are excited to be working with Dr. LoGrasso and The Scripps Research Institute to develop this important compound which could prevent the progression of Parkinsons disease and not just treat the symptoms of the disease, said Phillip Frost, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OPKO. Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological disorder that reduces the brain's ability to produce dopamine, affects about one million Americans. Currently prescribed drugs for Parkinsons disease including levodopa and so-called MAO-B inhibitors can counteract symptoms of the disease but not stop its progression.

SR-3306 was described in a pair of studies led by Dr. LoGrasso and published in February 2011 in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. Over the past decades, Scripps Research has developed a lengthy track record of major contributions to science and health, including laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. The institute employs about 3,000 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists including three Nobel laureates work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program, which awards Ph.D. degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. For more information, see http://www.scripps.edu.

About OPKO Health, Inc.

OPKO is a multi-national biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company that seeks to establish industry-leading positions in large and rapidly growing medical markets by leveraging its discovery, development and commercialization expertise and novel and proprietary technologies.

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OPKO Health and The Scripps Research Institute Announce Global License Agreement for a Novel Compound That Blocks ...

Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies Awarded Patent for Technology to Assess Parkinson's Disease

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VALLEY VIEW, Ohio, March 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies announced today that they have received allowance of claims from the U.S. Patent Office for an application covering their Movement Disorder Monitoring System and Method for quantitative assessment of motor symptoms associated with movement disorders. The claims cover a system and method of wireless patient-worn motion sensors that assess tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and dyskinesias associated with diseases like Parkinson's and essential tremor. This innovative medical technology has applications for both in-clinic and home-based patient care, optimizing programming for deep brain stimulation, and providing quantitative endpoints to determine efficacy of clinical trials. When used in telemedicine applications, physicians utilize a web interface to track symptom responses and fluctuations.

To address the growing market need for standardized and ambulatory assessment of movement disorders, Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies has been committed to the commercialization of the Kinesia and Kinesia HomeView medical technology platforms since 2003. "The allowance of our patent claims continues a successful commercialization path for our Parkinson's assessment systems intended to help physicians maximize therapeutic benefits and ultimately improve patient quality of life," says Joseph P. Giuffrida, PhD, President. "Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies is uniquely positioned in the movement disorders market as a world leader in medical device development and manufacture of technologies to standardize, automate, and remotely capture patient assessments. This heightened intellectual property position builds on and protects our previous commercialization efforts and continued market growth." Dr. Giuffrida also thanked the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Aging for their continued support of these technologies.

The company is committed to building its intellectual property portfolio which will cover new applications arising from several on-going clinical studies. "We have a broad range of patent applications in the pipeline and expect this to be the first of many to cover our innovative product base of movement disorder technologies," says Brian Kolkowski, PhD, Executive Vice President and General Counsel. "In addition, this patent represents a first step as wecontinue with international filings to protect our technology portfolio to support our growth into international markets."

About Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies is committed to pioneering innovative biomedical technologies to serve research, education, and medical communities, improving access to medical technology for diverse populations and positively impacting quality of life for people worldwide.

Media Contact Amelia Earhart, Marketing Manager - 216-446-2413 - aaearhart@GLNeuroTech.com

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Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies Awarded Patent for Technology to Assess Parkinson's Disease

Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies Awarded Patent for Technology to Assess Parkinson’s Disease

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VALLEY VIEW, Ohio, March 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies announced today that they have received allowance of claims from the U.S. Patent Office for an application covering their Movement Disorder Monitoring System and Method for quantitative assessment of motor symptoms associated with movement disorders. The claims cover a system and method of wireless patient-worn motion sensors that assess tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and dyskinesias associated with diseases like Parkinson's and essential tremor. This innovative medical technology has applications for both in-clinic and home-based patient care, optimizing programming for deep brain stimulation, and providing quantitative endpoints to determine efficacy of clinical trials. When used in telemedicine applications, physicians utilize a web interface to track symptom responses and fluctuations.

To address the growing market need for standardized and ambulatory assessment of movement disorders, Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies has been committed to the commercialization of the Kinesia and Kinesia HomeView medical technology platforms since 2003. "The allowance of our patent claims continues a successful commercialization path for our Parkinson's assessment systems intended to help physicians maximize therapeutic benefits and ultimately improve patient quality of life," says Joseph P. Giuffrida, PhD, President. "Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies is uniquely positioned in the movement disorders market as a world leader in medical device development and manufacture of technologies to standardize, automate, and remotely capture patient assessments. This heightened intellectual property position builds on and protects our previous commercialization efforts and continued market growth." Dr. Giuffrida also thanked the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Aging for their continued support of these technologies.

The company is committed to building its intellectual property portfolio which will cover new applications arising from several on-going clinical studies. "We have a broad range of patent applications in the pipeline and expect this to be the first of many to cover our innovative product base of movement disorder technologies," says Brian Kolkowski, PhD, Executive Vice President and General Counsel. "In addition, this patent represents a first step as wecontinue with international filings to protect our technology portfolio to support our growth into international markets."

About Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies is committed to pioneering innovative biomedical technologies to serve research, education, and medical communities, improving access to medical technology for diverse populations and positively impacting quality of life for people worldwide.

Media Contact Amelia Earhart, Marketing Manager - 216-446-2413 - aaearhart@GLNeuroTech.com

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Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies Awarded Patent for Technology to Assess Parkinson's Disease

Past Pregnancies May Protect Against MS

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Study: Multiple Sclerosis Risk May Drop by 50% After First Pregnancy

By Brenda Goodman, MA WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

March 7, 2012 -- Pregnancy appears to play a strong role in whether or not a woman may develop the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study.

The study involved more than 800 women between the ages of 18 and 60. Nearly 300 of them had experienced a first episode of MS symptoms. The other women were healthy and were included for comparison.

Women in the study with at least one child had about half the risk of early MS symptoms compared to women without children. And that risk appeared to drop with each additional child. Women with three children had a 75% lower risk of early MS symptoms compared to women without children. In women with five or more children, risk of early symptoms was slashed by 94%.

Those benefits remained even after researchers accounted for other factors associated with the likelihood of developing MS, like level of education, smoking, skin damage and sun exposure, and certain susceptibility genes.

Researchers say they're pretty sure that it is something about pregnancy -- rather than being a parent or raising children -- that's protective, because they saw no difference in men.

The study is published in the journal Neurology.

Although it is already known that a woman with MS may see a decrease in her symptoms while pregnant, other large studies have not seen an association between pregnancies and MS. But researchers think that may have something to do with when women were included in the studies.

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Past Pregnancies May Protect Against MS

Pregnancy May Protect Against MS, Study Says

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WEDNESDAY, March 7 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that pregnancy may decrease women's risk of developing multiple sclerosis.

"Even one pregnancy was associated with nearly a halving of risk [of developing MS symptoms]," said study author Anne-Louise Ponsonby, head of the environmental and genetic epidemiology and research group at Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. The team also found that women who were pregnant two or more times had only one-quarter of the risk of developing MS symptoms as those who were never pregnant.

The study was published online March 7 in the journal Neurology.

Previous research has found that pregnancy in women who already have MS -- an autoimmune disorder -- is linked with lower rates of relapse.

Ponsonby's team found an association between pregnancy and a lower risk of MS symptoms, not a direct cause-and-effect link. They say, however, that this association may help explain why the incidence of MS in women has inched up over the past few decades, as more women delay pregnancy or have fewer babies or none at all.

The researchers evaluated information on 282 Australian men and women, aged 18 to 59, who had MS symptoms -- which can include fatigue, numbness, balance or walking problems -- but had not been diagnosed with the disease. The researchers looked at both the number of live births and pregnancies lasting at least 20 weeks in the women. They also recorded the number of children born to men. They compared those statistics to 542 men and women without MS symptoms.

No link was found between the number of children men had and their risk of MS symptoms. There was an association with women, however: the risk of developing MS symptoms decreased as the number of pregnancies increased.

The researchers couldn't say exactly why pregnancy may lower MS risk, but they speculated it could be the increase in estrogen during pregnancy or the effect pregnancy has on inflammatory genes involved in MS.

The study was funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and other organizations.

Women are more likely than men to develop MS. Having a close relative with MS also increases your risk. About 400,000 people in the United States have MS, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

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Pregnancy May Protect Against MS, Study Says

Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week activities in Sanger

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Contributed

The City of Sanger is coordinating with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to recognize March 12 18 as MS Awareness Week.

The local MS chapter and volunteers will decorate downtown Sanger with orange colored ribbons on March 11 and will take them down on March 19.

If you would like to get involved contact Ana Hernandez at 439-2154 or seintern@nmss.org.

Symptoms may be mild (numbness in the limbs) or severe (paralysis, loss of vision). The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another. Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving hope to people affected by the disease. For more information about MS visit http://www.nationalMSsociety.org/cal.

The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of thesangerherald.com .

You must register with a valid email to post comments. Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.

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Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week activities in Sanger

Pregnancy seems to protect against multiple sclerosis

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Women who have been pregnant two or more times had a reduced risk of developing the disease, study finds. (Paul Sakuma / Associated Press)

March 7, 2012, 1:17 p.m.

Pregnancy is known to cause a remission in symptoms of multiple sclerosis in women who have MS prior to becoming pregnant. Now a study has found that multiple pregnancies may help prevent MS from ever developing.

The study, published online Wednesday in the journal Neurology, reviewed information on 282 men and women who received a diagnosis of central nervous demyelination. That's a condition that reflects early symptoms of MS but falls short of an actual MS diagnosis. The researchers compared those people to 542 healthy men and women.

They found that women who have been pregnant two or more times had a reduced risk of developing the disease. Women who had five or more pregnancies had one-twentieth the risk of developing MS compared with women who were never pregnant. There was no effect on men regarding their number of offspring and onset of the disease.

Rates of MS have increased over the last several decades. This increase could reflect the fact that women are having fewer children, said the lead author of the study, Anne-Louise Ponsonby of Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. It's not clear what it is about pregnancy that protects against MS or causes its temporary remission. It's likely that hormones play a role, and studies are underway looking at estrogen as a treatment for the illness. It's also possible that immune changes that take place during pregnancy alter symptoms of the disease as well as the risk of developing it.

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Pregnancy seems to protect against multiple sclerosis

Donepezil And Memantine, Key Dementia Drugs, Should Be Used More: Study

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By Kate Kelland

LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - Pfizer's dementia drug Aricept, already commonly used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, can also help patients with severe disease and should be used more widely and for longer, according to research published on Wednesday.

British scientists who studied the possible longer-term benefits of giving Aricept suggested that extending treatment could help twice as many Alzheimer's sufferers worldwide.

The study also looked at another commonly used dementia drug called memantine, which is sold in the United States under the brand Namenda by Forest Laboratories and Germany's Merz, and in Britain under the brand Ebixa by Danish group Lundbeck .

It found that keeping patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's on Aricept, or donepezil as it is known generically, or starting them on memantine treatment, meant they had significantly better cognitive and function abilities than patients taking a placebo or dummy pill.

An estimated 18 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia. It is fatal brain disease that affects memory, thinking, behaviour and the ability to handle daily activities and is placing an increasingly heavy burden on societies and economies across the world.

According to the World Health Organisation, some 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease International predicts that as populations age, dementia cases will almost double every 20 years to around 66 million in 2030 and 115 million in 2050.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 295 Alzheimer's patients in Britain who were assigned to one of four separate groups - one continuing to take donepezil, one stopping donepezil and getting a placebo, one stopping donepezil and starting memantine, and a fourth taking both drugs together.

Robert Howard, a professor at King's College London who led the trial, said it was the first to show the value of continued drug treatment for patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's.

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Donepezil And Memantine, Key Dementia Drugs, Should Be Used More: Study

Commonly used dementia drugs can help more patients with Alzheimer's

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Public release date: 7-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katherine Barnes katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk 44-207-848-3076 King's College London

The dementia drug donepezil (Aricept), already widely used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, can also help in moderate to severe patients, according to a report funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Alzheimer's Society. The study suggests that extending treatment to this group could help treat twice as many sufferers worldwide. Encouragingly, the drug has greater positive benefits for patients more severely affected than for those in the earlier stages of dementia.

It is estimated that 18 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common cause of dementia. According to the World Health Organization, of the 35 million people currently living with dementia globally, 58% live in low- and middle-income countries and by 2050 this figure is projected to reach 71% of the total.

The multi-centre UK study, led by Professor Robert Howard at King's College London, is the first trial to demonstrate the value of continued drug intervention for those patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease who have deteriorated beyond the point where donepezil is currently recommended.

The study, to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at two drugs: donepezil and memantine. Donepezil is the most commonly prescribed of the dementia drugs and is recommended for patients at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease. Doctors are currently advised to stop prescribing donepezil when the disease progresses to become moderate to severe and until now there has been no clear evidence that continuing treatment is of benefit to patients.

Over the course of the trial, patients who continued to take donepezil showed considerably less decline in cognition memory, orientation, language function and function (retained ability to carry out simple daily tasks and self-care) than those taking a placebo drug. The benefits seen with continued treatment were clinically important and were greater than those previously seen in patients with less severe Alzheimer's disease. Whilst the effect was slightly smaller, starting memantine treatment also resulted in significantly better cognitive and functional abilities compared with those taking a placebo.

Professor Robert Howard, lead author from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's says: "As patients progress to more severe forms of Alzheimer's disease, clinicians are faced with a difficult decision as to whether to continue or not with dementia drugs and, until now, there has been little evidence to guide that decision. For the first time, we have robust and compelling evidence that treatment with these drugs can continue to help patients at the later, more severe stages of the disease. We observed that patients who continued taking donepezil were better able to remember, understand, communicate and perform daily tasks for at least a year longer than those who stopped taking the drugs. These improvements were noticeable to patients, their caregivers and doctors. Both donepezil and memantine will soon be off patent and available in very cheap generic preparations. These findings will greatly increase the numbers of patients in the developed and developing world that we are able to treat."

Professor Nick Fox, MRC Senior Clinical Fellow at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, says: "The number of people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia is reaching critical levels. It has never been more important to invest in research which will enable doctors to make informed decisions based on the best evidence possible when deciding what treatments to give patients. The MRC has an ongoing commitment to the development of effective, safe treatments that will improve the quality of life for people with Alzheimer's disease and their care givers."

Professor Clive Ballard, Director of Research at Alzheimer's Society, says: "Thanks to the Alzheimer's drug donepezil, tens of thousands of people in the early to moderate stages of the condition are able to recognise their family for longer, play with their grandchildren and make vital plans for the future. This major new trial now shows that there could also be significant benefits on continuing the treatment into the later stages too. There are 750,000 people with dementia in the UK yet currently prescription levels of Alzheimer's drugs are still low. If this is to change we have to improve the shocking diagnosis rates and ensure everyone is given the opportunity to try treatments."

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Commonly used dementia drugs can help more patients with Alzheimer's

Commonly used dementia drugs can help more patients with Alzheimer’s

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Public release date: 7-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katherine Barnes katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk 44-207-848-3076 King's College London

The dementia drug donepezil (Aricept), already widely used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, can also help in moderate to severe patients, according to a report funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Alzheimer's Society. The study suggests that extending treatment to this group could help treat twice as many sufferers worldwide. Encouragingly, the drug has greater positive benefits for patients more severely affected than for those in the earlier stages of dementia.

It is estimated that 18 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common cause of dementia. According to the World Health Organization, of the 35 million people currently living with dementia globally, 58% live in low- and middle-income countries and by 2050 this figure is projected to reach 71% of the total.

The multi-centre UK study, led by Professor Robert Howard at King's College London, is the first trial to demonstrate the value of continued drug intervention for those patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease who have deteriorated beyond the point where donepezil is currently recommended.

The study, to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at two drugs: donepezil and memantine. Donepezil is the most commonly prescribed of the dementia drugs and is recommended for patients at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease. Doctors are currently advised to stop prescribing donepezil when the disease progresses to become moderate to severe and until now there has been no clear evidence that continuing treatment is of benefit to patients.

Over the course of the trial, patients who continued to take donepezil showed considerably less decline in cognition memory, orientation, language function and function (retained ability to carry out simple daily tasks and self-care) than those taking a placebo drug. The benefits seen with continued treatment were clinically important and were greater than those previously seen in patients with less severe Alzheimer's disease. Whilst the effect was slightly smaller, starting memantine treatment also resulted in significantly better cognitive and functional abilities compared with those taking a placebo.

Professor Robert Howard, lead author from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's says: "As patients progress to more severe forms of Alzheimer's disease, clinicians are faced with a difficult decision as to whether to continue or not with dementia drugs and, until now, there has been little evidence to guide that decision. For the first time, we have robust and compelling evidence that treatment with these drugs can continue to help patients at the later, more severe stages of the disease. We observed that patients who continued taking donepezil were better able to remember, understand, communicate and perform daily tasks for at least a year longer than those who stopped taking the drugs. These improvements were noticeable to patients, their caregivers and doctors. Both donepezil and memantine will soon be off patent and available in very cheap generic preparations. These findings will greatly increase the numbers of patients in the developed and developing world that we are able to treat."

Professor Nick Fox, MRC Senior Clinical Fellow at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, says: "The number of people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia is reaching critical levels. It has never been more important to invest in research which will enable doctors to make informed decisions based on the best evidence possible when deciding what treatments to give patients. The MRC has an ongoing commitment to the development of effective, safe treatments that will improve the quality of life for people with Alzheimer's disease and their care givers."

Professor Clive Ballard, Director of Research at Alzheimer's Society, says: "Thanks to the Alzheimer's drug donepezil, tens of thousands of people in the early to moderate stages of the condition are able to recognise their family for longer, play with their grandchildren and make vital plans for the future. This major new trial now shows that there could also be significant benefits on continuing the treatment into the later stages too. There are 750,000 people with dementia in the UK yet currently prescription levels of Alzheimer's drugs are still low. If this is to change we have to improve the shocking diagnosis rates and ensure everyone is given the opportunity to try treatments."

See the article here:
Commonly used dementia drugs can help more patients with Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s, Dementia Care to Cost U.S. $200 Billion This Year

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THURSDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- Caring for people with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia will cost the United States about $200 billion this year, a total that includes $140 billion paid by Medicare and Medicaid, new statistics released Thursday show.

Medicaid payments are 19 times higher for seniors with Alzheimer's and other dementias and Medicare payments for the conditions are nearly three times higher, compared to payments for other patients, according to the "2012 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures" report from the Alzheimer's Association.

Nearly 30 percent of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias are covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, compared to 11 percent of people without the conditions. This means that Medicare and Medicaid costs associated with Alzheimer's and other dementias will continue to rise as baby boomers age, the report said.

"Alzheimer's is already a crisis, and it's growing worse with every year," Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association, said in an association news release.

"While lives affected and care costs soar, the cost of doing nothing is far greater than acting now. Alzheimer's is a tremendous cost-driver for families and for Medicare and Medicaid. This crisis simply cannot be allowed to reach its maximum scale because it will overwhelm an already overburdened system," Johns added.

Most people with Alzheimer's and other dementias have at least one other serious chronic health problem, and Alzheimer's acts as a "cost multiplier" on these other diseases, according to the report.

For example, the statistics showed a senior with diabetes and Alzheimer's costs Medicare 81 percent more than a senior with diabetes alone. And a senior with cancer and Alzheimer's costs Medicare 53 percent more than a senior with cancer alone.

Mental impairment in patients with Alzheimer's and other dementias complicates the management of care, resulting in more and longer hospital stays, the authors noted in the news release.

"This disease must be addressed on parallel tracks: supporting research to find treatments that cure, delay or prevent the disease, and offering assistance and support to the more than 5 million Americans now living with Alzheimer's and their more than 15 million caregivers," Johns said.

"This is what the National Alzheimer's Plan is all about. Caring for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias costs America $200 billion in just one year. By committing just 1 percent of that cost, $2 billion, to research, it could begin to put the nation on a path to effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure," he noted.

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Alzheimer's, Dementia Care to Cost U.S. $200 Billion This Year

Alzheimer's, Dementia Care to Cost U.S. $200 Billion This Year

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THURSDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- Caring for people with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia will cost the United States about $200 billion this year, a total that includes $140 billion paid by Medicare and Medicaid, new statistics released Thursday show.

Medicaid payments are 19 times higher for seniors with Alzheimer's and other dementias and Medicare payments for the conditions are nearly three times higher, compared to payments for other patients, according to the "2012 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures" report from the Alzheimer's Association.

Nearly 30 percent of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias are covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, compared to 11 percent of people without the conditions. This means that Medicare and Medicaid costs associated with Alzheimer's and other dementias will continue to rise as baby boomers age, the report said.

"Alzheimer's is already a crisis, and it's growing worse with every year," Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association, said in an association news release.

"While lives affected and care costs soar, the cost of doing nothing is far greater than acting now. Alzheimer's is a tremendous cost-driver for families and for Medicare and Medicaid. This crisis simply cannot be allowed to reach its maximum scale because it will overwhelm an already overburdened system," Johns added.

Most people with Alzheimer's and other dementias have at least one other serious chronic health problem, and Alzheimer's acts as a "cost multiplier" on these other diseases, according to the report.

For example, the statistics showed a senior with diabetes and Alzheimer's costs Medicare 81 percent more than a senior with diabetes alone. And a senior with cancer and Alzheimer's costs Medicare 53 percent more than a senior with cancer alone.

Mental impairment in patients with Alzheimer's and other dementias complicates the management of care, resulting in more and longer hospital stays, the authors noted in the news release.

"This disease must be addressed on parallel tracks: supporting research to find treatments that cure, delay or prevent the disease, and offering assistance and support to the more than 5 million Americans now living with Alzheimer's and their more than 15 million caregivers," Johns said.

"This is what the National Alzheimer's Plan is all about. Caring for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias costs America $200 billion in just one year. By committing just 1 percent of that cost, $2 billion, to research, it could begin to put the nation on a path to effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure," he noted.

Continue reading here:
Alzheimer's, Dementia Care to Cost U.S. $200 Billion This Year

Study finds key dementia drugs should be used more

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LONDON (Reuters) - Pfizer's dementia drug Aricept, already commonly used to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, can also help patients with severe disease and should be used more widely and for longer, according to research published on Wednesday.

British scientists who studied the possible longer-term benefits of giving Aricept suggested that extending treatment could help twice as many Alzheimer's sufferers worldwide.

The study also looked at another commonly used dementia drug called memantine, which is sold in the United States under the brand Namenda by Forest Laboratories and Germany's Merz, and in Britain under the brand Ebixa by Danish group Lundbeck.

It found that keeping patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's on Aricept, or donepezil as it is known generically, or starting them on memantine treatment, meant they had significantly better cognitive and function abilities than patients taking a placebo or dummy pill.

An estimated 18 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia. It is fatal brain disease that affects memory, thinking, behaviour and the ability to handle daily activities and is placing an increasingly heavy burden on societies and economies across the world.

According to the World Health Organisation, some 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease International predicts that as populations age, dementia cases will almost double every 20 years to around 66 million in 2030 and 115 million in 2050.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 295 Alzheimer's patients in Britain who were assigned to one of four separate groups - one continuing to take donepezil, one stopping donepezil and getting a placebo, one stopping donepezil and starting memantine, and a fourth taking both drugs together.

Robert Howard, a professor at King's College London who led the trial, said it was the first to show the value of continued drug treatment for patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's.

While donepezil is commonly prescribed for patients in the early stages of the disease, doctors in some countries, including Britain, are advised to stop prescribing the drug to patients once their disease has progressed to become more severe.

"As patients progress to more severe forms of Alzheimer's disease, clinicians are faced with a difficult decision as to whether to continue or not with dementia drugs and, until now, there has been little evidence to guide that decision," Howard told reporters at a briefing abut his findings.

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Study finds key dementia drugs should be used more

Teacher Disciplines Autistic Student with Spray Bottle – Video

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04-03-2012 11:33 courtesy: http://www.myfoxhouston.com FAIR USE NOTICE This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 USC section 106A-117 of the US Copyright Law.

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Teacher Disciplines Autistic Student with Spray Bottle - Video

From ‘Refrigerator Mothers’ to untangling the genetic roots of autism

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Public release date: 7-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society

With the "Refrigerator Mother" notion about the cause of autism a distant and discredited memory, scientists are making remarkable progress in untangling the genetic roots of the condition, which affects millions of children and adults, according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

In the story, C&EN Associate Editor Lauren K. Wolf points out that most people in the 1960s believed autism resulted from a lack of maternal warmth and emotional attachment. It was a hypothesis popularized by Austrian-born American child psychologist and writer Bruno Bettelheim. Now scientists around the globe are focusing on genes that have been implicated in autism and related conditions, collectively termed "autism spectrum disorders." That research may solve mysteries about autism, which affects 1 in 110 children in the U.S. Among them: what causes autism, why does it affect more boys than girls and what can be done to prevent and treat it?

C&EN explains that scientists now have solidly implicated certain genes as being involved in autism. Most of those genes play a role in the transmission of signals through the junctions or "synapses" between nerve cells. Synapses are the territory where one nerve releases a chemical signal that hands off messages to an adjoining nerve. The human brain has an estimated 1,000 trillion synapses, and they are hot spots for miscommunications that underpin neurological disorders like autism. Scientists now are gleaning information on what those genes do, what brain circuits they affect and how the proteins they produce function. In doing so, they are paving the way for future medications for autism spectrum disorders.

###

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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From 'Refrigerator Mothers' to untangling the genetic roots of autism

From 'Refrigerator Mothers' to untangling the genetic roots of autism

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Public release date: 7-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society

With the "Refrigerator Mother" notion about the cause of autism a distant and discredited memory, scientists are making remarkable progress in untangling the genetic roots of the condition, which affects millions of children and adults, according to an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

In the story, C&EN Associate Editor Lauren K. Wolf points out that most people in the 1960s believed autism resulted from a lack of maternal warmth and emotional attachment. It was a hypothesis popularized by Austrian-born American child psychologist and writer Bruno Bettelheim. Now scientists around the globe are focusing on genes that have been implicated in autism and related conditions, collectively termed "autism spectrum disorders." That research may solve mysteries about autism, which affects 1 in 110 children in the U.S. Among them: what causes autism, why does it affect more boys than girls and what can be done to prevent and treat it?

C&EN explains that scientists now have solidly implicated certain genes as being involved in autism. Most of those genes play a role in the transmission of signals through the junctions or "synapses" between nerve cells. Synapses are the territory where one nerve releases a chemical signal that hands off messages to an adjoining nerve. The human brain has an estimated 1,000 trillion synapses, and they are hot spots for miscommunications that underpin neurological disorders like autism. Scientists now are gleaning information on what those genes do, what brain circuits they affect and how the proteins they produce function. In doing so, they are paving the way for future medications for autism spectrum disorders.

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From 'Refrigerator Mothers' to untangling the genetic roots of autism

The Flutie Family Tackles Autism, National Autism Awareness Month

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The famed quarterback's foundation raises awareness and provides support for families.

By Stephanie Stephens WebMD the Magazine - Feature

Doug Flutie Sr., 49, reaches his goals on the field and off. "For whatever reason, people have the feeling I can get things done," the Heisman Trophy winner says. Maybe they remember the former quarterback's famous heart-stopping, last-second Hail Mary pass in 1984 to win the Orange Bowl for Boston College.

But for families with children who have autism, Flutie's can-do mojo scores highest with the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. Flutie and his wife, Laurie, established it in 2000 to honor son Doug Jr., known as Dougie, who has childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD), a very rare autism spectrum disorder.

A Canadian study suggests one to six children in 100,000 may have CDD. Like Dougie, they develop normally for at least two years but then lose some or most language, motor, and social skills. Genetics or the body's autoimmune system could play a role, but scientists aren't sure. Dougie, now 20 and 6 feet tall, is termed "low functioning" -- he learns at a very slow pace, says Flutie, but does go to school.

To date, the Fluties have raised more than $13 million to support families affected by autism spectrum disorders, which are among the fastest-growing developmental disabilities in children and adults in the United States. The foundation funds national advocacy, educational, therapeutic, and recreational programs. For National Autism Awareness Month, the foundation's members and other organizations involved with Advocates for Autism of Massachusetts will visit Boston on April 9, the state's Autism Awareness Day, to remind legislators about the importance of critical services and support for families who need them.

Throughout the year, the foundation hosts numerous fund-raisers, some of which Dougie attends. "People really connect with him," says his proud dad. "We give comfort to families so they feel like they're not alone."

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The Flutie Family Tackles Autism, National Autism Awareness Month