Will the BRAIN Initiative Realize its Full Potential in a Budget-Cutting Climate?

by Mary Woolley, Research!America president and CEO Lofty goals are exactly what are needed to tackle daunting challenges. President Obama has recently announced just such a lofty goal. The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN Initiative) promises profound impact for patients, caregivers, clinicians and others who cope with the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other […]

LEAD Coalition Calls on Congress to Increase Research, Care and Support Appropriations

Sixty LEAD Coalition member organizations and supporters wrote to the U.S. House and Senate appropriations leadership in support of the Administration’s fiscal year 2014 budget proposal to provide an additional $80 million for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders research at the National Institutes of Health and an additional $20 million to the Administration on Community […]

LEAD Coalition Urges CMS to Approve PET Amyloid Imaging

Thirty-seven LEAD Coalition member organizations and supporters wrote to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to encourage issuance of a National Coverage Decision with immediate effect for PET amyloid imaging in the evaluation of progressive cognitive decline when its use follows the appropriate use criteria (AUC) developed by the Alzheimer’s Association and Society […]

Confronting Ageism and Stigma to Build the Alzheimer’s Disease Movement

by Mike Splaine In late April, I will join with hundreds of advocates for the Alzheimer’s Association 25th annual public policy forum and make Congressional visits with persons with dementia, family and professional caregivers and others who make up the faces of a broadening movement. I have done this many times but a milestone year — […]

LEAD Coalition Comments on FDA Draft Guidance for Development of Drugs for Early Stage Alzheimer’s Disease

Forty-seven LEAD Coalition member organizations and supporters joined together to submit formal comment welcoming the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft guidance which outlines FDA’s current thinking as to how to a drug developer may demonstrate efficacy in clinical trials in patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease that occur before the onset of overt dementia. Read more…