Neurodegenerative Disorders and their Treatment

Neurodegenerative disorders represent a challenging unmet medical need. As the incidence of chronic neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's disease, increases with age, the expected demographic change to a more elderly population will increase considerably the socioeconomic burden of these devastating conditions. While current treatments are palliative only, with increasing understanding of the biological basis of these disorders, there is now a realistic prospect for drugs that slow, or even halt, the process of neurodegeneration. This meeting reviewed the progress made in the discovery and development of medicines to treat neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke and multiple sclerosis (MS), and considered future prospects for effective pharmacotherapy, including the possibility of slowing, or even halting, the course of neurodegenerative disorders.