There really is no debate that Alzheimer’s awareness and research is at an all time high.  June was Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness month with much of the push being centered around gaining more awareness of the disease.  We recently saw comedian Seth Rogen on Capitol Hill pleading for more funding as Alzheimer’s disease funding significantly lags behind other diseases.  As more testing is being pushed for, the testing being done needs to have even better results.

Recent research is suggesting that more successful drug testing for Alzheimer’s drugs are needed.  Drug breakthroughs have successfully combated some of the symptoms of the disease, however, more research is needed to actually attempt to find a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Jeffrey Cummings, director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, recently said, “Overall, my message is we’re doing too little, investing too little; we need the help of the government, philanthropists, advocacy groups, venture capitalists.”

Saying that, here are a few steps researchers believe can be taken to help speed up not only testing of drugs, but more drugs being introduced to the general public that actually are successful.

1. Researchers believe more funding is essential.  They claim there is currently $6 billion per year spent on cancer research and only $600 million per year in Alzheimer’s research.
2. Standardization among clinical trials.  Researchers think inconsistent testing leads to data appearing less successful.
3. More drug testing that actually combats the disease and not the symptoms.  Only five drugs have been approved for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, yet they only treat the symptoms of the disease.

Developing an overall new approach to funding testing of Alzheimer’s.  This article speaks to an MIT professor who has developed a radical new way to approach this that he believes will work.