The many unsolved serious brain and nervous system disorders represent enormous costs to society. Approximately 4.5 million people in the U.S. and perhaps as many as 12-15 million worldwide are affected with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is already the third most expensive disease in the U.S., following heart disease and cancer. National direct and indirect costs of caring for affected individuals are at least $100 billion. The 500,000 Americans suffering from Parkinson’s disease incur health costs of $6 billion annually, and assisted living and nursing home care for those with the disease may exceed $100,000 per patient-year, while treatment and hospitalization costs can exceed $40,000 per patient.

Clearly, the direct and indirect costs associated with these devastating neurological diseases are staggering. By understanding the genetic vulnerabilities that underlie these illnesses, major opportunities for the development of new treatments begin to present themselves. The company believes the Neurome Technologies can provide insight into these genetic vulnerability factors, and is positioned to employ its technologies in pursuit of novel therapeutics to treat Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Neurome’s strategy - and the significant investment it represents - hinges on the ability to obtain a new generation of brain information: standardized, quantitative datasets that for the first time adequately and accurately depict the molecular, cellular and circuitry patterns of brain activity that determine both normal and variant functions of the brain, region by region and circuit by circuit – a new generation of data offering answers to new questions. These are precisely the types of datasets the Neurome Technologies were designed to collect, organize and analyze, and it places Neurome on the leading edge of CNS drug discovery and development. The ultimate goal is nothing less than novel therapeutics, agents of prevention, and creative strategies for maintenance, rehabilitation and enhancement of brain function in these key disease areas.