subject: Aarkstore Enterprise Research Report On Chinese Anti Senile Dementia Drug Market, 2010-2011 [print this page] According to statistics, the population aged 60 and above in China reached 167.14 million in 2009, accounting for 12.5% of the total population. It rose by 7.25 million (0.5%) compared with that in 2008. In 2009, the population aged above 80 in China reached 18.99 million. The GDP per capita of developed countries with a large aging population is usually USD 5,000-10,000. Among over 70 countries with large aging populations, 36% have the GDP per capita of over USD 10,000. By contrast, the GDP per capita of China was less than USD 4,000 in 2009, which indicates that China has entered the aging society ahead of time.
Senile dementia is a common disease among the elderly. Its incidence rate rises continuously in China in recent years. The major symptoms of senile dementia are the drop of ADL (activities of daily living) ability (e.g. unable to dress oneself and pass urine or stools by oneself), special strange behaviors (e.g. auditory hallucination), cognitive disorder (e.g. unable to retain the memory of major events in ones life and cannot recognize ones spouse, children and even oneself).
In China, senile dementia is much common in the elderly aged over 65. Senile dementia patients account for 4%-5% in this group of people, 10% in the group aged above 75, and 20% in the group aged above 85. It suggests that the incidence rate of senile dementia will increase by one-fold if the age of the elderly rises by 10 years.
According to conservative estimation, the number of senile dementia patients (including Alzheimer's disease as well as vascular dementia, mixed dementia and the senile dementia caused by systemic diseases) totaled 6-8 million, of which less than a half can receive effective treatment.
Cognitive process involves activities like being aware, learning and thinking. The cognitive decline occurs in patients with senile dementia and memory damage. The most common ones are patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD). Accordingly, drugs that can improve the cognitive power are generally called nootropics.
There are still many controversies in the nosogenesis and treating method of senile dementia especially AD in the medical circle. Nevertheless, with the advance of the research on the nosogenesis, some progress has been made in the development of drugs. Presently, over ten nootropics developed for the treatment of AD and VD, etc are in the later period of R&D (clinical phase III and the period after that). Five of them are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors under mature research. Other drugs under research have different mechanisms of action. This to some extent reflects that the drug development in this sector is directed towards multi-aspect research aiming at nosogenesis of senile dementia, providing a broader space for the later development of drugs.
