NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The news of the second drug to fight Alzheimer's disease approved by the FDA — the first one to get Full FDA approval — is a good sign according to Paul Newhouse, the director of the Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine.
"I think this is a very exciting time in this field," Newhouse said.
He says he expects demand for the drug — and appointments to see neurologists to get it — will grow to very high levels. But he says the process isn't so simple.
"You can't just go to your doctor's office, get a prescription and go to a pharmacy," Newhouse said.
He says the treatment is similar to treating cancer, including infusions, and that a lot of the focus over the next few months, is setting up the infrastructure necessary to meet that demand and provide the treatments.
"It's going to require infusion clinics, we have to have nurses, places for patients to get infusions, there will be requirements to getting certain kinds of brain scans and blood tests," Newhouse said.
It's the blood tests that Newhouse says hold the most hope. They can currently predict with good accuracy whether a much more expensive brain scan will reveal early Alzheimer's disease. But, he says, insurance companies and Medicare are making it difficult to get those tests covered and reimbursed.
Newhouse says even so, he thinks those less expensive blood tests will be used more often in the years ahead — the first step in what he hopes is a long line of treatments to slow or even stop the disease.
"I think this is a major step forward," Newhouse said.
