Key to Fighting Alzheimer's Costs: New Drugs - New York Times

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Re “Dementia Study Predicts a Surge in Cost and Cases” (front page, April 4):

The projected costs of dementia care are staggering, but this has been known for decades. It’s time we paid more attention to one of the fastest-growing chronic diseases in our country.

The only way to prevent dementia from bankrupting the system is to invest in drug discovery. There are no treatments to prevent or slow Alzheimer’s, the most common dementia. And it’s unlikely that any one drug will be the silver bullet, so we need to pursue many pathways.

Drug discovery for Alzheimer’s is especially difficult. More than other fields of endeavor, what we need is innovation, risk and persistence. We’ve made progress — many drugs are already in clinical trials — but much more needs to be done.

We need a continued and increasing effort to accelerate drug discovery, including the use of collaborative financing models. Through research, we can conquer Alzheimer’s and curb its crippling financial burden on our society.

LEONARD A. LAUDER

HOWARD FILLIT

New York, April 5, 2013

The writers are, respectively, co-chairman of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and executive director and chief science officer of the foundation.

To the Editor:

You report that by 2040 more than nine million people will have dementia. While clearly an important health finding, equally alarming is that we currently have a disease affecting four times the number of Americans that dementia will three decades from now.

Today, the disease of addiction affects 40 million Americans — more than the number with heart disease, diabetes, cancer or dementia. An additional 80 million engage in substance use in ways that threaten health and safety.

While total costs of dementia are projected to reach $500 billion a year by 2040, risky substance use and addiction right now cost government alone almost $500 billion each year.

As we struggle to reduce skyrocketing health costs, it is time to recognize addiction as a complex brain disease and take steps we know can help prevent and effectively treat it.

ROGER VAUGHAN

New York, April 5, 2013

The writer is director of CASA Columbia’s Substance Abuse Data Analysis Center.

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