Sir Terry's overtime wish for Alzheimer's drug developers

Published on Saturday 27 June 2009 19:44

AUTHOR and Alzheimer's disease sufferer Sir Terry Pratchett yesterday welcomed the opening in the UK of the new European headquarters of a Japanese firm that develops drugs to treat the condition.

Eisai's European Knowledge Centre, based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, will employ 500 staff working in manufacturing, research and sales – 250 of them new jobs, the firm said.

The company develops drugs including treatments for Alzheimer's such as Aricept, and has campaigned with another pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, to make the medication more widely available.

Sir Terry, right, said: "Since I was diagnosed with this disease I have always said that my goal is to stay alive and working as long as possible.

"I realise that I am far more fortunate than many sufferers, not least in the unusual variant of the disease that I have. I know the next two decades will see a tsunami of Alzheimer's sufferers, all desperately hoping for a treatment which will allow them to live more easily with the condition.

"We need to speed up research and, incidentally, the speed in which successful discoveries get to patients."

He welcomed the opening of the new centre "as another step towards making these goals a reality" and joked: "I hope everyone employed in it works overtime!"