Wyeth: Parkinson’s deserves major response

Alzheimer’s disease is increasing with such pace and is so debilitating to patients that it requires a concerted response from the pharmaceutical industry and government analogous to that seen against Aids in the 1980s, it has been claimed.

Speaking to a senate subcommittee on retirement and aging in congress this week in the US, Wyeth called for a national focus on Alzheimer’s disease to ensure that the general public and policymakers treat the condition with the seriousness it warrants.

Robert Essner, chairman and chief executive officer of the firm, told the committee: “Despite the wealth of data, the public doesn’t yet see this as an epidemic,” United Press International reports.

“Maybe in some ways, we’ve just gotten used to it.”

Mr Essner added that Alzheimer’s disease requires an epidemic-level response from all parties, comparing the desired reaction to that seen recently with the outbreak of avian flu, quotes the Star-Ledger Washington Bureau.

In January 2007, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals announced that R&D Direction magazine had recognised the firm as that with the best central nervous system research and development pipeline, with 18 compounds currently in development.

These products being developed across the small molecule, biotechnology protein and vaccine platforms include beta-amyloid, gamma secretase and plasminogen activator inhibitors being researched as potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.