For nine years straight there was a dearth of good news in the Alzheimer’s field. Despite extensive research no new drugs had been discovered to treat or prevent this incurable disease which affects 5.4 million people in the US. Then this past July a small clinical trial made headline news in USA Today: “Gammagard therapy offers hope for Alzheimer’s patients.”

An immune therapy made by Baxter International that already has FDA-approval for other diseases caused by immune disorders Gammagard made it through clinical trials involving 390 participants with evidence that it also appears useful in halting the progression of Alzheimer’s. Over a three-year period 24 of the Alzheimer’s patients who received Gammagard every two weeks experienced no decline in their function.

It may seem like 24 positive results isn’t worth a big hurrah but according to Reisa Sperling professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School the findings in this clinical trial could lead to a “paradigm shift in how we treat the disease.”

Behind every “breakthrough” drug or medical treatment is a clinical trial. Indeed almost every medicine in your local pharmacy went through clinical trials often for as long as five or more years at a cost of many millions of dollars. Yet despite the fact that clinical trials play a pivotal role in getting a drug from the brainstorming table to a pharmacy shelf most people remain relatively ignorant about what and who is involved in the process. 

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