On February 7, 2013 Gov. Tom Corbett signed an Executive Order establishing the Pennsylvania Alzheimer’s Disease State Planning Committee at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. One in 12 Pennsylvania families affected by Alzheimer’s disease Philadelphia, and the committee will work to create a state plan to address the growing Alzheimer’s disease crisis in Pennsylvania.

“Since Pennsylvania is the fourth ‘oldest’ state in the nation, it is critical that we unite to find a cure and help those who are living with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as those who care for them,” Corbett said. “This committee will bring together experts to address the challenging issues related to this disease.”

Secretary of Aging Brian Duke will serve as the chairperson of the committee that will examine the needs and research the trends of Pennsylvania’s Alzheimer’s population. The committee will include representatives from various state agencies as well as those personally impacted by Alzheimer’s disease. They will have one year to develop a planned approach for Pennsylvania relating to Alzheimer’s disease and other related brain disorders.

See the video at the PA Internet News Service
 

The lack of definitive biological markers for the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease has made it impossible to enroll patients in drug-research trials, U.S. regulators said, slowing development of new treatments.

The methods for trials were established in 1984 and cover patients with full-blown dementia who suffer both cognitive and functional limitations, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement today. The agency is proposing to relax guidelines for early-stage Alzheimer’s drug trials by letting researchers show that a medication slows the cognitive decline, rather than improvement in both cognitive and functional deterioration.

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