Sometimes I buy things from Amazon Japan. Find something of interest, leave it in cart, and once they accumulate, I order them.
Exchange rate for USD to JPY was 115 JPY/USD on Jan 2022. Now it is 144 JPY/USD. What I buy from Japan with USD now is like 25% off from Jan 2022. Lucky enough.
I ordered 24 books. One of the books is this nonfiction/documentary on Alzheimer drug development. Written by Susumu Shimoyama, a nonfiction writer, published on 1/8/2021. Language is Japanese.
Until recently, we did not have drug for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have seen over 200 failed clinical trials. Huge amount of money and efforts for nothing. Some pharmas went bankrupt or merged because of failed trials.
As in this documentary, Eisai, a Japanese pharma, found Aricept, a drug that helps neuronal functions and thus helps cognitive functions for a while. My mother was taking the drug for her AD if I remember correctly.
Then, amyloid-targeting drug (antibody drug against amyloid-beta protein, a major pathology component of AD) came to the market.
This documentary covers the stories of AD drugs and their developers.
Each chapter describes different players. Eisai drug development team, international familial AD consortium, AD transgenic mouse generators, AD vaccine and amyloid antibody drug developers, leading scientists on amyloid cascade hypothesis, scientists chasing non-"mainstream" target, and so on.
I really enjoyed reading those. Went through this 330 page book in 2 days.
The stories actually are dramatic. AD is a lethal disease and people die. Before they die, they go through dreaded processes of loss.
Some of "inside company power struggle" episodes reminded me of "Kousaku Shima", a Japanese manga series. The manga series were about career of a corporate "salaryman" worker and were very popular. As corporate culture and common sense for work environment have changed quite a bit in this past 20 years, I am not sure if the series are still popular, though.
The book ends with the FDA approval of Aducanumab, an antibody drug for AD, on 2021, under somewhat controversial circumstances.
Controversial as it was, it was undeniable that the FDA approval gave some momentum and hope to AD drug developers. Now, second anti-amyloid drug is about to launch, and other drugs are being tested.
New drugs that work represent humankinds' progress and answers to people's hope.
Also, new drug is where the money is.
As a researcher/scientist, I have a few ideas as well as questions on the AD drug field. Yet the progress in 35 years portrayed in this book was undeniably important.
[book cover]
Many American AD researchers and scientists were interviewed and appeared in the book. This book ought to be translated to English.
