Biomedical Innovators Advance $14 Million Non-Invasive Alzheimer’s Treatments as 7 Million Americans Seek Better Options
Updated
Updated · HIT Consultant · Jul 29
Biomedical Innovators Advance $14 Million Non-Invasive Alzheimer’s Treatments as 7 Million Americans Seek Better Options
2 articles · Updated · HIT Consultant · Jul 29
Summary
Non-drug Alzheimer’s therapies are gaining momentum, with innovators pushing wearable, app-based and neuromodulation treatments aimed at slowing or reversing cognitive decline with fewer risks and lower costs.
Current FDA-approved drugs offer only modest benefit: Leqembi costs about $26,000 and donanemab about $32,000 before infusion and MRI expenses, while both carry risks including brain swelling and microhemorrhages.
StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot Community, launched in early 2024 with backing from Gates Ventures and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s Diagnostic Accelerator, is linking companies across diagnosis, treatment and patient support.
Examples include a company that raised $14 million for a wearable ultrasound helmet, a Class I medical-device app to slow decline, and NeuroEM’s at-home TEMT-RF headset targeting toxic protein aggregates.
The push comes as more than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, early diagnosis remains widely missed, and roughly half of Medicare beneficiaries with dementia diagnoses say they were never told.