By the year 2030, some eight million people are expected to be living with Alzheimer's--a disease for which early detection and treatment can make a crucial difference.
Fortunately, an innovative Philadelphia firm, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, is developing novel molecular imaging products that are able not only to detect the early stages of Alzheimer's, but also a host of other degenerative brain diseases such as Dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson's.
Avid specializes in molecular brain imaging; the company is developing products, some of which are in Stage 3 testing, that might be able to detect the onset of degenerative brain diseases before symptoms develop.
Put in more technical terms, Avid has developed proprietary targeting agents to image amyloid plaques--a protein that contributes to brain degeneration--and is currently testing these compounds in clinical trials for the detection of Alzheimer's disease.
As the company's research and product development has progressed, its staff has slowly grown, up 25 percent to 34 employees. The small firm's work is groundbreaking, and others have begun to take notice.
Ernst & Young named Avid's co-founder and CEO, Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, the 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year among emerging companies in Greater Philadelphia.