Arjun Masurkar, MD, PhD: Clinical Trials for Alzheimer Disease

With the population aging rapidly, it has become important to conduct Alzheimer disease clinical trials to usher in a new wave of treatments and improve the difficult task of diagnosing the disease.

In an interview with MD Magazine®, Arjun Masurkar, MD, PhD, a neurologist and assistant professor in the departments of neurology and neuroscience & psychology at NYU Langone Health, explained what needs to happen to optimize research in this field.

MD Mag: With the population aging, how important is it to move forward with as many clinical trials as possible?

Masurkar: We need all the help that we can get in this field to move the field forward not only from scientists and doctors doing the research, but also from volunteers for clinical trials.

As we know from the cancer field, the more trials that are done, the more research articles that are published, it really moves the needle forward towards a cure. If you look at the numbers the number of clinical trials the number of publications in the Alzheimer’s field in terms of therapeutics pales in comparison to cancer.

So, we really need to exponentially advance the number of trials that we have as well as the

participation of people out there in the general public as well as a diverse population so that we can really move forward with discovering therapy.

MD Mag: On funding clinical trials.

Masurkar: Funding is absolutely critical for advancing science both from the government, from the NIH as well as foundations.

What has been very good in recent years is that the funding for Alzheimer's disease research has really exponentially increased.

So, I think that this is becoming a well-known concept that the more funding that's put into a condition to biomedical illness the more likely that you're able to find a cure. So, I think that we do have the government on our side to increase the visibility of the disease in terms of funding in terms of the public awareness as well.