Scientists worried by waning commitment from major drugmakers to brain research warn the prospect for new drugs to treat diseases like Alzheimers is bleak unless regulators and governments find incentives fast. Big Pharma is struggling to make money from neuroscience — the science of how the brain works and affects behavior — because research is proving unpredictable and costly at a time when companies are grappling with patent expirations and pressure to cut prices. Experts in the field of neuroscience say moves by firms like GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Merck to back away from some brain research and development (R&D) may sound its death knell in Europe and put it at risk elsewhere if nothing is done to recapture their interest. They suggest companies could be encouraged to reconsider if they were given the option of sharing the risk of developing new drugs with publicly-funded research institutions, or if current patents were extended to ensure better returns on investment. “If we think about a whole range of things from multiple sclerosis, to stroke, to Alzheimer's disease, to schizophrenia, to autism, we don't have effective treatments for any of them — and the reason is that we don't really understand the basis of those diseases,” said Colin Blakemore, a professor of neuroscience at Britain's respected Oxford University. “The need for fundamental research that can be drawn on is the only hope for the development of new treatments.” Potential markets for any new treatments that are developed could be huge, while the economic cost of failing to treat them could be equally big. The number of people with dementia, of which Alzheimer's is the most common form, is expected to double worldwide by 2030 to 66 million, and almost double again to 115 million by 2050. A report by Alzheimers Disease International recently estimated that the worldwide costs of dementia would reach $604 billion in 2010 — more than one percent of global GDP output — and that those costs would soar as the number of sufferers triples by 2050. In pain — another area where neuroscience could make headway — experts estimate that in Europe alone, around one in five people suffers chronic pain, a debilitating and costly condition for which there are also few new treatments. “Neuro-related disorders are enormously important ... they make up around a third of the entire burden of disease globally in the costs in quality of life and in the costs in treatment and care,” Blakemore said.
