It isn’t that easy. Just because a drug has shown accidental positive feedback doesn’t get it legal for that purpose. There are so many hoops to jump through with the FDA and the AMA that it would have extended the production and use of the drug for years possibly even if the drug interaction was positive. I have little doubt that the FDA would have stopped the production of the drug if Pfizer had told them it did something other than what they were approved to determine that wasn’t dangerous (so far). And that would have increased both the time to get it approved onto the market and raised the cost possibly double.
rwood
It’s so simple..!
Of course it would cut into sales of another drug in their pipeline for which they had already spent billions.
It’s like iPhones and tablets:
You want to make them sufficiently different that one cannot substitute for the other, else your competitor is YOU.
Doctors can legally perscribe this other drug for alzheimer’s however that will be an OFF-LABEL percription for which the liability for an unintended outcome would be borne by the invidicual doctor and not by the drug maker.
They CAN start clinical trials for this other drug for Alzheimer’s yes, but most likely it will still take 10 years and $1.3 billion go get through all that.
RA runs in my mom's family line. There is no Alzheimer's in that family history. My brother-in-law observed his mother institutionalized for years with Alzheimer's. There is no history of RA in his family. Is RA protective against Alzheimer's? I'm sure there will be counter examples shortly indicating the two afflictions are independent, unrelated problems.
Google “anti inflammatory foods”
EAT THEM
And cut out wheat.
Live on mild, cheeses, FREASH (not processed) meets and fish and poutry and eggs.
TAKE VITAMINS.
Especially pottasium and magnesium and vitamin D
Get some good Cocunut oil. Eat a spoonful in the morning- you’ll be amazed at the energy you have in 15 minutes.
Eat minced garlic and saurkrout. Best antibiotic I’ve ever used.
You’re welcome.
Ps. if you do the above you will not be hungry all the time and you’ll lose weight. A lot of it.
Prevention is not the same as cure.
If someone doesn’t get Alzheimer’s, and was taking this drug, nothing is proven.
Nothing is mentioned about whether the drug will CURE someone who already has the disease.
Is it good medical practice to take a drug to attempt to prevent something that one doesn’t have? My answer, is only if there’s a definite indication that the person will get the disease, and that is not the case.
bkmk
They probably have an Alzheimer drug in the works. The price of the arthritis drug is already set. Alz patients would want to buy it for that price, too. Pfizer knows people would gladly pay more for an Alz drug than an arthritis drug, so why sell a cheaper competitor. Just cover up their finding.
There is no advantage in spending money on a major study when you will not hit the 80% effective goal.
This is the fake news media weaponizing journalism to demonize “Big Pharma” in pursuit of socialize healthcare and government control of medical care and medical research.
But Pfizer’s scientific rationale is legit:
Enbrel is an anti-inflammatory and prior research on the effects of different types of anti-inflammatories on Alzheimer’s have found no evidence to suggest they work.
Plus the Enbrel molecules are too large to actually travel into the brain, further limiting its potential to work.
So the statistical correlation found in a database simply isn’t a big enough hook to spend millions of dollars on research that has no actual chance of success because there is no biological mechanism to explain how or why it might work.
Might is good only in horse shoes and handgrenades
A very recent study said no NSAID had any affect on the progression of Alzheimer’s. They are all strong anti-inflammatory drugs.
Embrel is a completely different kind of drug called a biologic, which are expensive and have their own set of problems.