Author: Dan

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...

Beacon Rock Revisited

As those of you who have read Tattoo will know, Beacon Rock is a special place for me.  It is a basalt monolith towering 848 ft over the north bank of the Columbia River about 35 miles...

Shipping delays

The good news is Tattoo was released on schedule in the UK on May 6 and has been well received. This photo of the Tattoo display in a window of the Cambridge University Press...