Duke University researchers apparently have taken a large step toward unraveling the mystery of Alzheimer's disease, which gradually wipes away its victims' minds before killing them. The Duke team finds that almost two-thirds of Alzheimer's sufferers lack a common blood protein that fights brain-cell decay. Someday, a synthetic version of the protein, in a pill, might stop this dire illness in its tracks.
That would be a glorious day not only for Alzheimer's victims and their long-suffering families, but also for the nation's health-care financial sheet. America now spends $100 billion a year to care for those struck by age-related dementia. An Alzheimer's cure would cut deeply into that tab while returning some 4 million older citizens to greater productivity.Under the Clinton health plan, bureaucratic overseers could cow drug companies from making the sizable profits that bankroll medical research. In this respect, the plan is potentially inhumane - and uneconomical. (Prescriptions are cheaper than nursing homes.) Drug firms aren't the enemy, as anyone who can still think clearly should know.