Pfizer Inc., together with its collaborator on the Alzheimer's Immunotherapy Program, Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, presented new research this week at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease 2010 (ICAD 2010) from two podium and four poster presentations. This research indicates there may be potential for an increased risk of comorbid conditions, such as seizures, stroke and type 2 diabetes, with Alzheimer's disease (AD). These studies also provide new findings about the burden of care and costs associated with AD for patients and their caregivers.

"These findings underscore the importance of advancing research about the growing burden and costs of AD. We need to increase our understanding of the needs of patients and caregivers, as well as the economic costs of this disease," said Ronald Black, M.D., assistant vice president, Clinical R&D, on behalf of the Alzheimer's Immunotherapy Program. "The Alzheimer's Immunotherapy Program is committed to advancing such research as well as working to develop new therapies to help fight this devastating disease."

Since caregiver out of pocket expenditures (OOPE) have not been well documented, this comprehensive Internet-based survey aimed to estimate the cost per AD patient within the community-dwelling (CD) and long-term care (LTC) setting by evaluating caregiver time and OOPE. Data from 987 caregivers were included in this analysis, of which, 901 provided care for CD patients and 86 provided care for patients in LTC.