Ian Kremer of the LEAD Coalition Discusses Aducanumab's Impact on Healthcare Policy

"Now that we have a disease-modifying therapy, and we hope that more people who deserve and need a diagnosis will receive it, they'll be more aware of the fact that they need to look into social service supports, and there are already terrible shortages and delays in access to those services. That's going to get magnified as more people not only get Alzheimer disease, but are aware that they have Alzheimer disease."

To say the implications of the FDA's approval of aducanumab for the treatment of Alzheimer disease are broad is quite an understatement. The first approved therapy with the potential to slow disease progression, aducanumab represents a long-awaited breakthrough for the AD community that will likely launch and/or reinvigorate efforts throughout research, advocacy, and policy.

With a new treatment available, many leaders in the community are now turning their attention to access. This is a central focus of the LEAD Coalition (Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer's Disease), a federal policy organization made up of about 100 partners working to improve quality of life for people with Alzheimer disease and dementia. Together with partners across industry and advocacy, Ian Kremer, executive director, helps surface key issues addressing access to care to regulators who can enact policies to help enable and protect some of the most vulnerable populations.

In an interview with NeurologyLive, Kremer shares his excitement over the new drug approval and lays out some of the key initiatives that the LEAD Coalition will focus on over the next several months in order to help maximize this new opportunity for the AD community.