Gary Barg:
There’s actually a third track and
that is what I would call selfishly
altruistic, meaning that I can help
my descendants, future generations
of my family, by hastening a
possible cure or therapy.
Claude Wischik:
Yes, I agree with that. You know,
from the early days when I used to
collect brain tissue in Cambridge, I
felt very embarrassed at having to
ask relatives about consenting for
the collection to study the disease.
But I was overwhelmed by the
essential altruism and generosity of
people. I thought that maybe 30
percent or 40 percent would say
“Yes.”& It turned out that more
than 95 percent of people, when
approached, said “Yes.” So
there’s a deep sense of community
and commonality of purpose that we
all somehow benefit. I think there
is that, and it’s not very far below
the surface.
Gary Barg: Our
readers experience firsthand the
real life limitations of the current
treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
Do you have any prediction about the
time horizon for the development of
a truly effective treatment for
Alzheimer’s?
Claude Wischik:
If our Phase III confirms our Phase
II, then we should have that data in
2015. And that means that a drug
could be on the market by 2016. So
that’s the timetable that we’re
working to at the moment. We’re
pretty confident that the result
will be positive because we did a
very big Phase II study on 321
subjects. And there we found that,
at the optimum treatment dose, we
achieved a 90 percent reduction in
the rate of progression. So we’re
pretty hopeful about our chances in
Phase III.
So the good side of all of this
is that there are a lot of people
out there who are working hard to
try and bring about help to patients
and loved ones and the caregivers
and so on. A lot of people have
dedicated their lives to this. Let’s
hope some of that produces some
benefit.
Gary Barg: If
you only had one most important
piece of advice to impart to a
family caregiver dealing with
Alzheimer’s, what would that be?
Claude Wischik:
That’s really easy. If you really
think this is Alzheimer’s, run,
don’t walk. Go to a clinic. Find a
trial and get the patient enrolled,
particularly in the early stages.
Don’t hang about. Don’t pretend this
is going to go away by itself.
That’s often the big barrier—people
don’t want to face it. They don’t
want to face the word. They think,
OK, my memory’s bad, but I haven’t
got Alzheimer’s. The trouble is,
they just let it pass another year.
It’ll be OK. We can manage somehow.
That it can’t be. If it’s really bad
enough that you suspect it – and
generally the families know– then
find a trial. At least there’s some
hope. But if you do nothing, then
there’s no hope.
