Medicines for an aging population: The EMA perspective and policies.

The European Medicines Agency adopted their Geriatric Medicines Strategy more than a decade ago. The strategy aims at elucidating the evidence basis for marketing authorization of new medicines which will be used in the older population, and at ensuring the appropriate communication of findings to the patient and healthcare provider. During the past decade new tools and data sources have emerged to support the strategy goals, and their use should be considered. Possible concrete actions are presented to improve the design of clinical trials, the data collection both pre- and post-approval, the assessment of the findings, and the communication to assist informed prescription and safe medicine taking. Implementation and prioritization of these actions should be done from the perspective of addressing the needs of patients while maximizing efficient use of resources, with the aim of integrating geriatric aspects into routine medicines development and assessment.

Inclusion of functional measures and frailty in the development and evaluation of medicines for older adults.

The International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) E7, the guidance for the conduct of clinical trials in people older than age 65 years, dates from 1994. Since then, the inclusion of older people in clinical trials has hardly improved, particularly for the oldest old age group (individuals older than age 75 years), which is the fastest growing demographic bracket in the EU. Even though most medications are taken by this group, relevant endpoints and safety outcomes for this cohort are rarely included and reported, both in clinical trials and regulatory approval documents. To improve the critical appraisal and the regulatory review of medicines taken by frail older adults, eight recommendations are presented and discussed in this Health Policy. These recommendations are brought together from different perspectives and experience of the treatment of older patients. On one side, the perspective of medical practitioners from various clinical disciplines, with their direct experience of clinical decision making; on the other, the perspective of regulators assessing the data submitted in medicine registration dossiers, their relevance to the risk-benefit balance for older patients, and the communication of the findings in the product information. Efforts to improve the participation of older people in clinical trials have been in place for more than a decade, with little success. The recommendations presented here are relevant for stakeholders, authorities, pharmaceutical companies, and researchers alike, as the implementation of these measures is not under the capacity of a single entity. Improving the inclusion of frail older adults requires awareness, focus, and action on the part of those who can effect a much needed change.

Current evidence on the impact of medication optimization or pharmacological interventions on frailty or aspects of frailty: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Frailty and adverse drug effects are linked in the fact that polypharmacy is correlated with the severity of frailty; however, a causal relation has not been proven in older people with clinically manifest frailty. METHODS: A literature search was performed in Medline to detect prospective randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing the effects of pharmacological interventions or medication optimization in older frail adults on comprehensive frailty scores or partial aspects of frailty that were published from January 1998 to October 2019. RESULTS: Twenty-five studies were identified, 4 on comprehensive frailty scores and 21 on aspects of frailty. Two trials on comprehensive frailty scores showed positive results on frailty although the contribution of medication review in a multidimensional approach was unclear. In the studies on aspects related to frailty, ten individual drug interventions showed improvement in physical performance, muscle strength or body composition utilizing alfacalcidol, teriparatide, piroxicam, testosterone, recombinant human chorionic gonadotropin, or capromorelin. There were no studies examining negative effects of drugs on frailty. CONCLUSION: So far, data on a causal relationship between drugs and frailty are inconclusive or related to single-drug interventions on partial aspects of frailty. There is a clear need for RCTs on this topic that should be based on a comprehensive, internationally consistent and thus reproducible concept of frailty assessment.

Vascular risk factors and dementia: 40-year follow-up of a population-based cohort.

AIMS: Our aim was to evaluate the longitudinal associations of individual and multiple vascular risk factors with the subsequent development of dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS: The Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men started in 1970 when the 2,268 participants were 50 years old. Baseline investigations included determinations of blood pressure, fasting glucose, cholesterol, BMI and smoking status. Over a maximum follow-up of 40 years, 349 participants were diagnosed with dementia, out of which 127 had AD. Analyses were repeated using a re-examination of the cohort at 70 years of age as a baseline. RESULTS: No associations between vascular risk factors and AD were found. For all-type dementia, the association between high systolic blood pressure and dementia was the most consistent. High fasting glucose was associated with increased risk of all-type dementia only when measured at 70 years. Individuals with both an APOE ε4 allele and vascular risk factors had the greatest dementia risk. CONCLUSION: Vascular risk factors influence the future risk of dementia, in particular vascular and mixed-type rather than AD. The impact of vascular risk factors on dementia in a longitudinal study depends on the age at baseline and the length of follow-up.

The fat mass and obesity gene is linked to reduced verbal fluency in overweight and obese elderly men.

Humans carrying the prevalent rs9939609 A allele of the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene are more susceptible to developing obesity than noncarries. Recently, polymorphisms in the FTO gene of elderly subjects have also been linked to a reduced volume in the frontal lobe as well as increased risk for incident Alzheimer disease. However, so far there is no evidence directly linking the FTO gene to functional cognitive processes. Here we examined whether the FTO rs9939609 A allele is associated with verbal fluency performance in 355 elderly men at the age of 82 years who have no clinically apparent cognitive impairment. Retrieval of verbal memory is a good surrogate measure reflecting frontal lobe functioning. Here we found that obese and overweight but not normal weight FTO A allele carriers showed a lower performance on verbal fluency than non-carriers (homozygous for rs9939609 T allele). This effect was not observed for a measure of general cognitive performance (i.e., Mini-Mental State Examination score), thereby indicating that the FTO gene primarily affects frontal lobe-dependent cognitive processes in elderly men.

Systemic inflammation and the risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia: a prospective population-based study.

Inflammation is suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) and high sensitivity serum reactive protein C (hsCRP) as markers of systemic inflammation were analyzed at two examinations of the ULSAM-study, a longitudinal, community-based study of elderly men (age 70, n = 1062 and age 77, n = 749). In addition, serum amyloid protein A (SAA) and urinary prostaglandin F2alpha (PGF2alpha) metabolite levels were analyzed at age 77 in this cohort. Two serial samples (at ages 70 and 77) were available from 704 individuals. Using Cox regression analyses, associations between serum IL-6, hsCRP, SAA and PGF2alpha metabolite levels and risk of AD, any type of dementia (all-cause dementia) and non-AD dementia were analyzed. On follow-up (median, 11.3 years) in the age 70 cohort, 81 subjects developed AD and 165 subjects developed all-cause dementia. Serum IL-6, hsCRP, SAA, or PGF2alpha levels were not associated with risk of AD. At age 70, high IL-6 levels were associated with an increased risk of non-AD dementia (Hazard ratio 2.21 for above vs. below/at median, 95%confidence interval 1.23-3.95, p-value = 0.008). A longitudinal change in CRP or IL-6 levels was not associated with AD ordementia. In conclusion, Serum IL-6, hsCRP, SAA, and PGF2alpha levels are not associated with the risk of AD. High serum IL-6 levels may be associated with increased risk of non-AD dementia.

Systemic tocopherols and F2-isoprostanes and the risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia: a prospective population-based study.

Oxidative stress in the brain is suggested to be involved in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, serum alpha- and gamma-tocopherol, the two major systemic antioxidants, were analyzed at two examinations of the ULSAM-study, a longitudinal, community-based study of elderly men (age 70, n = 616 and age 77, n = 761). In addition, urinary F2-isoprostane levels, as markers of systemic oxidative stress, were analyzed at the age of 77 in this cohort (n = 679). Cox regression analyses were used to examine associations between serum alpha-, gamma-tocopherol and urinary F2-isoprostane levels and AD, any type of dementia (all-cause dementia) and non-AD dementia. On follow-up (median, 12.3 years), 40 subjects developed AD and 86 subjects developed all-cause dementia. Serum alpha- and gamma-tocopherol or urinary F2-isoprostane levels were not associated with the future risk of AD or dementia. In conclusion, systemic serum alpha- and gamma-tocopherol and urinary F2-isoprostane levels are not associated with the future risk of AD or dementia and do not seem to be useful predictors of clinical AD or dementia.

Plasma beta amyloid and the risk of Alzheimer disease and dementia in elderly men: a prospective, population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Beta amyloid (Abeta) protein accumulates in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer disease (AD) and is detectable in cerebrospinal fluid and plasma. OBJECTIVE: To examine plasma levels of Abeta peptides Abeta(40) and Abeta(42) as predictors of incident AD and other types of dementia. DESIGN: Prospective, population-based cohort study. SETTING: The Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men. PARTICIPANTS: Plasma Abeta(40) and Abeta(42) levels were analyzed as predictors of incident AD in 1045 men at age 70 years and 680 men at age 77 years using Cox proportional hazards analyses. Alzheimer disease and other types of dementia were diagnosed by standardized screening, clinical evaluation, and medical record review. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hazard ratios of AD (primary outcome) and vascular dementia or other dementia (secondary outcomes) according to baseline levels of plasma Abeta(40) and Abeta(42). RESULTS: From the age of 77 years at baseline, 46 individuals developed AD at follow-up (median, 5.3 years). A low plasma Abeta(40) level at age 77 years was associated with higher incidence of AD. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio was 4.87 (95% confidence interval, 1.63-14.6) for the lowest Abeta(40) tertile compared with the highest tertile. On follow-up from age 70 years at baseline (median, 11.2 years), 82 individuals developed AD. Plasma Abeta(40) and Abeta(42) levels measured at age 70 years were not significantly associated with incident AD. CONCLUSIONS: Low plasma Abeta(40) levels predicted incident AD in elderly men independently of potential confounders. Plasma Abeta(42) levels were not significantly associated with AD incidence. The clinical value of Abeta measurement in plasma remains to be established in future studies.