Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation CEO Mark Roithmayr and Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer Dr. Howard Fillit sit down with Yahoo Finance to discuss the progress in Alzheimer's research ad the prominence of the neurological disorder.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

DAVE BRIGGS: Anyone who's watched a loved one suffer with Alzheimer's disease knows all too well there's simply nothing more painful than watching someone you care about lose their memories of accomplishments, let alone their loved ones. An estimated six million Americans are currently living with a neurological disorder, half are undiagnosed.

And while there's no known cure, there are glimmers of hope today. Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, the NFL Players Association, part of a big group throwing $100 million into early detection. Here to discuss are Dr. Howard Fillit, the CEO of the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation and the co-founder and Chief Science Officer Mark Roithmayr. Nice to see you both. Thanks for being here.

MARK ROITHMAYR: Good to be here.

DAVE BRIGGS: And this is National Brain Health Day, so it's an important day for you to be here. Mark, what does that round of venture philanthropy mean for progress? And how would you characterize this moment? Is there hope?

MARK ROITHMAYR: There really is hope, and I think there's a false narrative that's out there that's leading people to believe there's not. But let's just start with that $100 million. You pointed out, six million people in the United States, 57 million worldwide, in the next 50 years that's going to triple. So everybody knows somebody who's being touched by this, right.

Think about it. If we're going to get new treatments, and we're on the cusp of new treatment, we have to have better tools, tools to diagnose. Those half the people that aren't diagnosed, if you can catch it early, we know we can do something about it. Here comes along philanthropists like Leonard Lauder, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos.