Over the past few weeks, there have been some concerns raised in the media regarding blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease being openly available to the public in the U.S.

Alarmingly, these tests have been made available not as part of an ethically-monitored clinical trial, the specialist care of a medical practitioner, or any consultation or follow-up care.

Many leaders in the Alzheimer’s and Life Sciences fields have spoken out about this new practice, including our CEO and Founder, Prof Craig Ritchie, who shared his thoughts on the matter:

“Here at Scottish Brain Sciences, we believe the use of blood-based biomarkers for the early detection of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases is on the very near horizon. It is something that will make a fundamental difference to the way we diagnose, putting the emphasis on early diagnosis, when intervention is most critical, and thereafter, in how we treat neurodegenerative disease. However, we feel there is still some way to go with clinical research on these blood-based biomarkers before they should be made available for routine clinical use. Indeed, these tests should not be used direct-to-the-public at this stage.

We are currently involved in several studies with various companies looking to understand more about the effective use of these tests, and we will continue to be involved in such studies in the future. All of the work we do here to fulfil our goal of opening access to clinical trials receives Ethics approval, and is run to the highest medical standards to ensure that safety for our research participants always comes first.”

If you want to know more about the work we do at Scottish Brain Sciences, either generally, or specifically related to blood-based biomarkers, then please don’t hesitate to contact us here.