Alzheimer’s Disease
Bristol-Myers Squibb is developing several investigational drugs for Alzheimer's, a progressive brain disease that destroys memory, interferes with thinking and ultimately destroys the ability of an individual to carry out simple tasks. About 4.5 million people in the United States have the disease, which usually begins after age 60. Risk increases with age and the incidence is expected to increase dramatically as life expectancy increases, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The cause of Alzheimer’s is unknown and there are no treatments that can halt the progression of the disease–although if detected early enough some drugs can, for a limited time, lessen or prevent some symptoms from becoming worse. Because Alzheimer’s represents a serious unmet medical need, Bristol-Myers Squibb is conducting research on this increasingly common disease.