Neurodegenerative Diseases Are a Rising Health Care Priority: Kavita Nair, PhD, FAAN

Neurological diseases now affect nearly half the world’s population, prompting global recognition and innovation as multiple sclerosis (MS) therapies gain critical status from the World Health Organization, says Kavita Nair, PhD, FAAN, professor of neurology and clinical pharmacy, University of Colorado Anschutz.

This transcript was lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

Can you highlight some key trends or statistics on the health burden of neurodegenerative diseases?

I'd like to answer it in the sense that there is a sort of a global recognition. The World Federation of Neurology, which is a global organization, had a 2024 global burden of disease and estimated that almost 43% of individuals across the world are touched by a neurological disease. That's almost half the world's population [who] in some way have been touched by this disease; that's a tremendous burden—half the population being touched.

There's a recognition that this is something that we have to take urgently. While in the past, we focused tremendously [and] rightfully so on cardiovascular disease, but now neurological disease is coming right up there with cardiovascular disease. In addition, from a global perspective, the World Health Organization, for the first time in 2023, put 3 disease-modifying therapies used to treat MS on its critical list of medications. To be considered a critical medication for MS was a big win and a big recognition, again, that these are critical conditions.

From a burden of disease [perspective], we're seeing 2 things. One is that our prevalence of older populations is increasing, the burden of disease is also increasing. We're also seeing newer methods, more sophisticated methods, to diagnose these populations with multiple sclerosis and with Alzheimer disease sooner. As a result, I'd be able to increase the identification, and so more people are getting diagnosed earlier, which is a great thing, but that also means we have to take care and diagnose and manage patients longer with these diseases.

There's a recognition that neurological disease is no longer something that comes maybe in the top 5. It's right up there as probably the number 1 most important disease. And you'll see that just in terms of innovation. In 2021, PhRMA, which is a trade organization for the [pharmaceutical] industry, estimated that at the time there were probably 261 different entities in development for various kinds of neurological diseases. It's on the radar for every stakeholder in health care right now.