Monthly Archive: June 2021

The cost of aducanumab

When donepezil (Aricept) was approved in 1996, it was the first tolerable drug available to treat the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. I remember being shocked that the price was so high, about $120...

Aducanumab controversies

Yesterday I participated in a panel discussion regarding recommendations for use of aducanumab, now called by the proprietary name Aduhelm, in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The conference, Dialogue: Current Perspectives on Aducanumab, was sponsored...

A day on Bald Mountain

Yesterday my friend Henry and I hiked about 7 miles in and out on a segment of the Timberline Trail in the Mt. Hood Wilderness. The Timberline Trail is a 41.2-mile loop that circumnavigates...

Sensory triggers of memory

Marcel Proust famously wrote in his semi-autobiographical novel Remembrance of Things Past published in 1913 how the smell and taste of a tea-soaked madeleine cake evoked the childhood memory of breakfast with his Aunt Léonie. The...

FDA approves aducanumab

Today the FDA approved the use of Biogen’s anti-amyloid monoclonal antibody aducanumab for treating early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.  I have mixed feelings about this approval. As someone living with early-stage Alzheimer’s who participated in the aducanumab...

Eagle eyes

During the thirty-five years we have lived in Portland, Oregon, sightings of bald eagles have become much more common.  The species is thriving.  It is still a thrill to see one soaring over our house or...