A Dementia That Afflicts Younger Population Has Similarities to Alzheimer's, Applicable...

A Dementia That Afflicts Younger Population Has Similarities to Alzheimer's,
Applicable Treatments

Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation and The Association for Frontotemporal
Dementias study identifies funding gaps, opportunities for accelerating drug
discovery and development

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Neurodegenerative disorders
called frontotemporal dementias (FTD) are the second-leading cause of
early-onset dementia in persons under age 65 and can emerge sometimes as early
as age 20. While research over the past 10 years has contributed much to the
understanding of FTD, little progress has been made in the development of
effective therapies, says a new report by Alzheimer's Drug Discovery
Foundation and The Association for Frontotemporal Dementias.

"Frontotemporal dementias and Alzheimer's disease share some common disease
mechanisms and much of what we learn about Alzheimer's can be applied to FTD
and vice versa. That is why our two organizations collaborated on this study,"
says Howard Fillit, MD, Executive Director of Alzheimer's Drug Discovery
foundation. "FTD affects a younger population than Alzheimer's, and in some
respects is harder to diagnose."

"Over the past 10 years, 74% of funding for FTD has gone to basic research,
and only 10% to pre-clinical drug development or toward early detection and
diagnosis," says Philip H. Lovett, Research Liaison for The Association for
Frontotemporal Dementias' Board of Directors and a Founding Partner of
Millennium Partners. "NIH has provided the overwhelming majority of funding,
but from 1999 to 2007 its funding has diminished five-fold, and the size of
individual grants is smaller."

Alzheimer's disease is typified by plaques of amyloid protein on brain cells,
and intracellular tangles of a protein called tau, that affect brain cells in
the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, where memories are stored. Some FTD
patients also show these tangles of tau, but in the frontal and temporal lobes
of the brain that control executive function and higher behavioral
functioning. Other FTD patient brains contain aggregates of a newly
discovered protein called TDP-43.

"More funding is needed to study biomarkers that differentiate FTD patients
with the tau versus the TDP-43 pathologies in order to successfully design
clinical trials," says Dr. Fillit. "We now know much more about diseases at
the molecular level, and can identify the targets, or biological components,
for drug discovery. Drug development could be accelerated by more investments
in novel technologies, such as PET imaging, for early detection and
diagnosis."

"Charitable philanthropies and foundations have partially offset the decrease
in NIH funding," Mr. Lovett says. "But there are many drug discovery programs
that would benefit from modest sums - and here is where foundations can make a
significant impact on drug strategy."

Recent studies estimate the average cost of developing a single drug to be
$1.3 billion to $1.7 billion. The process can take 10 to 15 years, through the
stages of discovering targets, validating leads, pre-clinical development, and
clinical trials. For every 5,000 to 10,000 compounds that enter the drug
development pipeline, only 250 will progress to pre-clinical development as
leads; five will move forward into first-in-man studies - of which only a
single compound will become an approved drug. Because FTD is a relatively rare
disease, drug discovery and research can be expedited through provisions in
the Orphan Drug Act.

While the first symptom of Alzheimer's is memory loss, the first symptom of
FTD can be a change in personality. Forms of frontotemporal dementias include
behavioral variant FTD (behavioral disorders), corticobasal degeneration
(movement disorders), motor-neuron disease, Pick's disease, progressive
aphasia, semantic dementia, and progressive supranuclear palsy.

For more information about Alzheimer's disease, to speak with Dr. Fillit or if
you would like to receive a copy of the FTD report, please contact Filomena
Machleder at 212-901-8004 or fmachleder@alzdiscovery.org. For information
about AFTD or frontotemporal dementias, to speak with Mr. Lovett, please
contact Susan Dickinson at 267-514-7221 or sdickinson@ftd-picks.org.

About the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF)
ADDF (www.alzdiscovery.org) is the only public charity whose sole mission is
to accelerate the discovery and development of drugs to prevent, treat and
cure Alzheimer's disease, related dementias and cognitive aging. We award
grants to leading scientists conducting breakthrough drug discovery research.
ADDF uses a venture philanthropy model to bridge the worldwide funding gap
between basic research and later-stage development, using any return on
investment to support new research. Since 1998, we have received over 2,000
requests to fund new ideas for Alzheimer's drugs. For all, we provided expert
reviews and recommendations to advance their programs. We granted more than
$37 million to fund more than 244 Alzheimer's drug discovery programs in
academic centers and biotechnology companies in 15 countries. The ADDF website
explores headline news on Alzheimer's disease, updated weekly.

About The Association for Frontotemporal Dementias (AFTD)
AFTD (http://www.ftd-picks.org/) is a not-for-profit organization created in
2002 to advocate for more funding into the causes and treatments for
frontotemporal dementias (FTD), as well as to provide caregivers and patients
with a central place to find information and support. Mounting evidence that
these debilitating disorders are more prevalent than was originally thought
and the limited information and support available for caregivers and families,
along with the lack of funding for research, inspired a group of dedicated
caregivers, clinicians, and researchers to create an organization to address
these unmet needs.

SOURCE Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation

Filomena Machleder of Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, +1-212-901-8004,
fmachleder@alzdiscovery.org; or Susan Dickinson of AFTD, +1-267-514-7221,
sdickinson@ftd-picks.org