Cargando…
Novel drug candidates targeting Alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population
Intensive research is carried out to develop a disease-modifying drug for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The development of drug candidates that reduce Aß or tau in the brain seems particularly promising. However, these drugs target people at risk for AD, who must be identified before they have any, or o...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8394767/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34117127 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107304 |
_version_ | 1783744022964076544 |
---|---|
author | Gustavsson, Erik Raaschou, Pauline Lärfars, Gerd Sandman, Lars Juth, Niklas |
author_facet | Gustavsson, Erik Raaschou, Pauline Lärfars, Gerd Sandman, Lars Juth, Niklas |
author_sort | Gustavsson, Erik |
collection | PubMed |
description | Intensive research is carried out to develop a disease-modifying drug for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The development of drug candidates that reduce Aß or tau in the brain seems particularly promising. However, these drugs target people at risk for AD, who must be identified before they have any, or only moderate, symptoms associated with the disease. There are different strategies that may be used to identify these individuals (eg, population screening, cascade screening, etc). Each of these strategies raises different ethical challenges. In this paper, we analyse these challenges in relation to the risk stratification for AD necessary for using these drugs. We conclude that the new drugs must generate large health benefits for people at risk of developing AD to justify the ethical costs associated with current risk stratification methods, benefits much larger than current drug candidates have. This conclusion raises a new set of ethical questions that should be further discussed. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8394767 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-83947672021-09-14 Novel drug candidates targeting Alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population Gustavsson, Erik Raaschou, Pauline Lärfars, Gerd Sandman, Lars Juth, Niklas J Med Ethics Feature Article Intensive research is carried out to develop a disease-modifying drug for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The development of drug candidates that reduce Aß or tau in the brain seems particularly promising. However, these drugs target people at risk for AD, who must be identified before they have any, or only moderate, symptoms associated with the disease. There are different strategies that may be used to identify these individuals (eg, population screening, cascade screening, etc). Each of these strategies raises different ethical challenges. In this paper, we analyse these challenges in relation to the risk stratification for AD necessary for using these drugs. We conclude that the new drugs must generate large health benefits for people at risk of developing AD to justify the ethical costs associated with current risk stratification methods, benefits much larger than current drug candidates have. This conclusion raises a new set of ethical questions that should be further discussed. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-09 2021-06-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8394767/ /pubmed/34117127 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107304 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Feature Article Gustavsson, Erik Raaschou, Pauline Lärfars, Gerd Sandman, Lars Juth, Niklas Novel drug candidates targeting Alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population |
title | Novel drug candidates targeting Alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population |
title_full | Novel drug candidates targeting Alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population |
title_fullStr | Novel drug candidates targeting Alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population |
title_full_unstemmed | Novel drug candidates targeting Alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population |
title_short | Novel drug candidates targeting Alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population |
title_sort | novel drug candidates targeting alzheimer’s disease: ethical challenges with identifying the relevant patient population |
topic | Feature Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8394767/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34117127 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107304 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT gustavssonerik noveldrugcandidatestargetingalzheimersdiseaseethicalchallengeswithidentifyingtherelevantpatientpopulation AT raaschoupauline noveldrugcandidatestargetingalzheimersdiseaseethicalchallengeswithidentifyingtherelevantpatientpopulation AT larfarsgerd noveldrugcandidatestargetingalzheimersdiseaseethicalchallengeswithidentifyingtherelevantpatientpopulation AT sandmanlars noveldrugcandidatestargetingalzheimersdiseaseethicalchallengeswithidentifyingtherelevantpatientpopulation AT juthniklas noveldrugcandidatestargetingalzheimersdiseaseethicalchallengeswithidentifyingtherelevantpatientpopulation |