Opinion | China joins U.S., Japan in approving Alzheimer's drug: International cooperation can beat 'AL'
By Augustus K. Yeung
Sir Jack Cater, the admirable founder and first high commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong, was reportedly suffering from Alzheimer's soon after retirement in Britain. This man of mission was a local hero –-- who braved a storm of rebellion when the Royal Hong Kong Police "rebelled" against this newly found institution, which was to help clean the city of its chronic social disease, corruption.
Back then, corruption was a corrosive and extensive disease. But it was social, not biological in nature in comparison with Alzheimer's.
How could a man with a sharp mind and steel moral fiber contract such a disease? It is a medical mystery only "time can tell". But time cannot tell; it is scientific research and thinking that can bring this disease to light.
Alzheimer's etiology is a complicated story, and its healings are more important because it is coming to hit China hard. "In China alone, it was said that some 10 million people currently suffer from Alzheimer's and related dementia, and the number is expected to approach 40 million by 2050 ..."
Against this backdrop, it is imperative that China should address this health-issue, log stock and barrel.
Fortunately, good news has come as the year hits 2024!
China has just approved a drug to treat Alzheimer's, becoming the third country after the United States and Japan to fast track its sale to treat the irreversible and progressive brain disorder, according to a newspaper report.
"The nation's drugs regulator said Leqembi, an antibody that has shown to slow progression of the disease for people in the early stage of Alzheimer's, could be sold in the country," said the reporter.
The drug's joint developers, Eisai of Japan and Biogen of the U.S., said the drug would be launched on mainland China as early as the third quarter of 2024. It was fast-tracked by the US Food and Drug Administration in July 2023 followed by Japan's health ministry in September.
Eisai, which is taking the lead – on distributing the drug on the mainland – has yet to announce a price for Leqembi in the country.
In the U.S, the therapy is priced at US$26,500 annually and at about 2.98 million yen (HK$161,000) annually in Japan, according to media reports. A fair price for the drug would be between US$8,900 and US$21,500 per year, the U.S. drug cost-effectiveness organization ICER said in May.
Note: Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia that impairs memory and thinking skills. Its symptoms slowly progress and eventually become severe enough to interfere with the patient's ability to carry out simple daily task. Leqembi binds to and reduces soluble and insoluble amyloid-beta deposits from the brains of Alzheimer's patients. These deposits are linked to the development of the disease.
It is the first drug in the world that has been proven to slow the progression of the disease and related cognitive and functional declines – using this mechanism, and the only one that has obtained approval from regulators, according to the drug's developers.
Some 10 million people on the mainland currently suffer from Alzheimer's and related dementia, and the number is expected to approach 40 million by 2050 as the country battles with a rapidly ageing population – amid the fear of forthcoming low birth rates. (Source: SCMP)
Having received and read this news report, what do you make of it? What questions would you raise?
There may be hope for preventing Alzheimer's simply by taking a cultural heritage approach, allowing fragile seniors to thrive and survive the onslaught of Alzheimer's ("AL").
The consequential question that follows is who can afford the price given that the therapy is so hefty and treatment lengthy?
The case is especially challenging for developing countries such as China where there are still at least half of the population waiting to be liberated from poverty, although the CPC has gloriously uplifted millions out of abject poverty.
Ostensibly, the advance of artificial intelligence (AI) has given hope to humankind. However, the guillotine of financial burden is still hanging over the heads of many poor people waiting for deliverance from Alzheimer's.
Based on our study of the Philosophy of Mind, we can crystalize a body of knowledge and experience that can enable us to prevent Alzheimer's or to delay its arrival.
Let's see how the great thinkers managed it. The great philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) lived to 80, and the monumental German thinker Karl Marx (1818-1883) lived 65 years struggling, writing furiously and hoping to find a way out of poverty and social inequality; the English rebel philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) lived up to 98 in spite of being put in prison again and again for being a pacifist, and twice denied teaching posts at the universities, one in his native England, and another in New York in North America; and then there was Mao Ze-tung (1893-1976) a prolific political writer, founder and leader of the PRC, who lived to 83 years.
These great minds led a long productive life, cracking their brains about how to help humanity; Absolute retirement is counterproductive – to development and maintenance of a brilliant mind.
Mr. Cater, the brain of the ICAC, fell victim to Alzheimer's. The cause may simply be that he retired from a high-profile portfolio in Hong Kong. And his mind got the tacit and sudden message: the brain wasn't needed any more – the way it used to be active.
Had he got down to writing a memoir, he might be able to live much longer – like those great "busy-body" philosophers.
The human mind is highly intelligent; it can make or break a person. And Mr. Cater may be an example. When it comes to the human brain, we'd better handle it with care. Continuity matters.
Philosophy may be the low-priced, high-valued therapy China, Japan and the U.S. can cooperatively unite to behaviorally engineer Alzheimer's exit – apart from drugs.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
Opinion | The rhapsody of great power politics: Chinese people in Taiwan may not have to pay price
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