Despite the arrival of a new class of drugs and a growing pipeline of medical care, clinical trials for the treatment of Alzheimer\u2019s disease continue to face a global shortage of participants.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the message by Alzheimer\u2019s Disease International, a global federation of Alzheimer associations. In their report released Monday to mark World Alzheimer\u2019s Day, it warns that the shortage of trial participants risks slowing progress in dementia therapies.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s research has found that 158 potential dementia therapies are currently being tested through 192 clinical trials worldwide.<\/p>\n
In recent years, the arrival of \u201cdisease-modifying\u201d drugs such as lecanemab and donanemab has boosted hope that there may be a cure for the neurodegenerative disease one day. These drugs are designed to slow the progression of the disease rather than just mask or manage symptoms like in older drugs.<\/p>\n
Viewed historically, \u201cthe field is changing with remarkable speed,\u201d the report said. \u201cBlood tests are emerging, computational drug discovery is accelerating, and the pipeline has become broader and more sophisticated than at any point in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
To sustain active clinical trials, and given the high rates of people rejected in the screening process, an estimated 350,000 would need to apply to join the trials, the group said.<\/p>\n
However, a range of factors, including misunderstandings about research and the limited awareness of opportunities to participate in the trials, hamper people\u2019s participation, it said.<\/p>\n
In Japan, there is a general lack of understanding among the public about how drugs are developed and approved, says Noriyo Washizu, a nurse and member of Alzheimer\u2019s Association Japan, a group consisting of people with dementia, their care providers and healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n
\u201cClinical trials are often perceived as a special arrangement involving special people,\u201d Washizu said. \u201cMany people who are taking medications daily, be they for blood pressure or for osteoporosis, don\u2019t understand that there\u2019s a rigorous testing process behind them, and that we are receiving the benefits of such trials.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also said that a paternalistic culture remains pervasive in Japan\u2019s medical industry, with a lack of support for patients to make informed decisions about their own health. This leads to patients\u2019 aversion to voluntary participation in clinical trials.<\/p>\n
Washizu said information about clinical trials should be easy to access, fair and based on scientific evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cInformation should come not only from pharmaceutical companies, but also from governments and research institutions,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople need to be able to access this information easily and make their own informed decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the arrival of a new class of drugs and a growing pipeline of medical care, clinical trials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2992,4701,22119,103,61,60,410],"class_list":["post-630969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-aging","tag-alzheimer","tag-elderly","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}