Mar. 13—LIMA — An Eli Lilly drug to delay cognitive decline in adults with early stage Alzheimer's disease will soon enter Phase III of the clinical trial process. Lima residents may have the chance to enroll in the trial, thanks to a new research site set to open in March.
The pop-up site is part of a nationwide network of research sites established by Care Access, which partners with major pharmaceutical companies to improve diversity in clinical studies by recruiting participants from cities where access to pharmaceutical research is limited.
The Boston company is set to open a site in Lima by March 22.
Ottoville native Sheila Miller recently joined Care Access as a patient care liaison after working as an orthopedic nurse for Mercy Health-St. Rita's Medical Center for 45 years.
She's already hard at work readying the office, located at 825 W. Market St., Lima, on the second floor in Suite 305, and educating public about the Alzheimer's study, which is recruiting healthy adults aged 55 to 80 years old.
"I want to put an end to this disease at some point," Miller said.
That end starts with clinical research.
Searching for a cure
There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia that gradually damages the brain, resulting in memory loss, impaired reasoning and erratic behavior.
An estimated 6 million Americans suffer from the disease, which occurs when abnormal protein formations in the brain cause healthy neurons to lose connections and die. The changes may occur decades before symptoms develop.
Eli Lilly plans to enroll 3,300 people in its Phase III study for donanemab, an antibody treatment designed to delay cognitive decline in the early stages of the disease.
The company is looking for healthy adults who are at risk of developing Alzheimer's but who show no signs of the disease yet, who must pass a screening process that includes a memory test and an investigational blood test to see if they are predisposed for developing Alzheimer's disease, determined by the presence of a bad protein in the blood.
It's all voluntary, free and confidential, said Jasmine Davis, a patient educator with Care Access.
Researchers do not share a person's Alzheimer's risk with employers or insurers, Davis said. And there's no obligation to continue in the study for those who only want access to the blood test, she said.
The goal of research, Davis said, is for primary care physicians to one day be able to screen all patients for Alzheimer's disease years before symptoms set in. But for now, Davis said, the blood test is still classified as research.