Leonard Lauder with Leora and Steven M. Levy of Kamber Management

Leonard Lauder with Mel and Nancy Goodes

Dr. Eric Kandel (right) with Dr. Daniel and Mari Skovronsky

Mel and Nancy Goodes with Dr. Evan Melrose of Spindletop Capital of Austin, Texas

Deborah Krulewitch came to support ADDF even though she said she had tripped on stairs at Canyon Ranch in Mass.

ALZHEIMER’S DRUG DISCOVERY
It Takes An Enormous Amount
To Find A Drug For Alzheimer’s

STORY AND PHOTOS BY TIM BOXER

T

HE warning was serious: Alzheimer’s will be the most expensive disease this nation has ever seen. It could bankrupt Medicare in the future.

This from Leonard Lauder, co-chairman of Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) at its second annual fall luncheon and symposium held at the Jumeirah Essex House on Central Park South in New York. The organization is the only one that raises money exclusively to fund promising drug research.

"There must be 100 Alzheimer’s drugs sitting in hospitals and drug companies that have passed phase 1, waiting to be used," Lauder said. "It takes $15 million to get them into phase 2 studies."

Dr. Howard Fillit, geriatrician, neuroscientist and ADDF executive director, emphasized how expensive it is to defeat the disease: "Phase 3 takes $400 million. Who will take the risk?"

"There are no drugs today to prevent or slow this disease," Paula Zahn said. The host/producer of On the Case with Paula Zahn on the Investigation Discovery channel, added: "In the U.S. every 69 seconds someone develops Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It is a progressive and fatal disease. It’s cruel to see the mind and spirit dim before your eyes."

In the meantime, what can you do? Exercise, Nobel laureate Eric Kandel insists. The Columbia University neuroscientist, who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000, said it is extremely important to walk half an hour every day. "One can’t emphasize enough that physical exercise is important to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease."

Bonnie Pfeiffer Evans and Alice Shure, trustees of the Charles Evans Foundation, presented the Charles Evans Award for Excellence to Dr. Daniel M. Skovronsky, president/CEO of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals which he founded in 2005.

He said his company raised $70 million. After it was acquired by Eli Lilly last year, it was valued at $800 million.

Mel Goodes, former chairman/CEO of Warner-Lambert Canada pharmaceutical company, said he had the vision 20 years ago to bring the first drug for AD to market. He also brought Lipitor to market in 1996.

A year ago he was diagnosed with AD. He kept himself sharp physically. In July he had an operation that was once rarely considered with an AD patient. "I had a heart valve replacement without cutting open my heart. I have a pig valve. In gratitude to the pig who gave his life for me, I swore off bacon."