Neurological diseases are now the largest global health threat - how can innovative business models help?

In an Expert View column, Bruce Leuchter, chief executive of Neurvati Neurosciences, a Blackstone Life Sciences portfolio company, outlines the importance of increased investment in research and development and innovative business models, to bring more therapies for neurological disorders to patients.

As a practicing neuropsychiatrist for more than a decade, I saw firsthand the profound unmet medical needs and significant disease burden among patients living with neurological and psychiatric disorders including epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, schizophrenia and depression. Based on my clinical experience, the recent study findings published in Lancet Neurology showing that neurological diseases are now the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide were not surprising.1 Approximately 3.4 billion people, or 40% of the global population, are affected by neurological disorders ranging from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to epilepsy, stroke, and neonatal encephalopathy.

While perhaps not surprising, the study does strongly reaffirm the need for continued investment in research and development (R&D) to bring more and better therapies for neurological diseases to patients, including many who currently have no or only limited treatment options available. It also highlights the reality that efforts to develop drugs for neurological disorders typically face many unique challenges that can derail or delay initially promising development programs and keep these therapies from ever reaching patients.