Heptagon Future Trends – Alzheimer’s: The final healthcare frontier

Ageing populations mean Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia will unfortunately become more prevalent. The disease already kills more people in the US than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. By 2050, the number of people with early onset Alzheimer’s is forecast to double versus current levels. The social and economic cost will be significant, potentially exceeding $1tr globally over the next decade. While there is no current cure for Alzheimer's, the good news is that extensive research is being focused on finding treatments for both slowing the disease and treating its symptoms. Major players such as Biogen, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and Roche are conducting promising trials. Even with a significant drug treatment market opportunity ahead (worth at least $14bn by 2030), progress will unlikely be linear and predicting winners at this stage difficult.