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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...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gustavsson, Erik, Raaschou, Pauline, Lärfars, Gerd, Sandman, Lars, Juth, Niklas
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
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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.
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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
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