Patients and Doctors Deserve the Ability to Consider Whether Aducanumab Will Deliver the Best Medical Outcome and Quality of Life
Washington, DC (June 7, 2021) – John Dwyer, President of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP), a patient-centric organization committed to accelerating the discovery of therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, issued the following statement on the announcement today by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it has approved Aducanumab for patients with early Alzheimer’s Disease.
On behalf of all patients with Alzheimer’s, I commend the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving Aducanumab for treatment of early stage Alzheimer’s Disease. Aducanumab offers disease-modifying benefits to patients that currently have no approved therapy. It will provide long-overdue and much-needed help to patients, their families, and physicians fighting this horrible, fatal disease.
The FDA was wise to approve the first treatment that can slow the disease, extend patients’ quality of life, and gives them hope. This decision ends a nearly 20-year drought since the last approved therapy for Alzheimer’s. It gives patients facing early Alzheimer’s, their families, and their doctors the ability to consider whether Aducanumab will deliver the best medical outcome and quality of life.
We appreciate that the FDA has been transparent and energetic in its collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders, including patient advocates, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies. Close collaboration with knowledgeable stakeholders in the private and public sectors is essential for well-informed, timely decision making by the FDA.
Aducanumab is only the first of a series of new drugs in clinical trials that can build on its success and further improve the treatment of Alzheimer’s. The Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation calls on the FDA and the entire AD research field to redouble its efforts to bring forward additional therapies as soon as possible.
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About the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation® (GAP)
The Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation® (GAP) is a patient-centric nonprofit dedicated to accelerating the delivery of innovative therapies for neurological disorders by reducing the duration and cost of clinical trials. Research centers across the US and Canada are part of the growing GAP Network (GAP-Net). GAP supports GAP-Net research centers by assisting with study start up and recruitment activities, promoting diversity in research studies, and offering national programs that champion brain health and the citizen scientists who make research possible.