Stead Impact Ventures Chief Marketing Officer Dana Larson talks with Mike Banville about the rapid transformation of the Alzheimer’s disease patient journey.
Dana: It’s an exciting time to work with you and the ALZpath team as a fractional CMO as we help to usher in a new era when we will be able to walk into a doctor’s office, take a blood test, and know if we have or will develop Alzheimer’s disease — even if we have no symptoms.
Mike: I couldn’t agree more. We are at an inflection point where early Alzheimer’s diagnosis, disease-modifying treatments and, in the near future, even preventive approaches may be widely available. We are seeing so much progress. It’s a complete shift from the 1990s when my grandmother’s health and cognitive abilities declined rapidly. She showed clear signs of dementia, which was most likely Alzheimer’s disease, but she never received a formal diagnosis.
Dana: Now we have better treatment options, and more coming, but we’re still not diagnosing nearly enough patients, and the scale of the problem is growing exponentially. Today, less than 25 percent of Alzheimer’s patients are diagnosed, and of those 30 percent are misdiagnosed. By 2050, more than 150 million people globally are expected to have Alzheimer’s or related diseases. How will the diagnostics landscape evolve to meet these expanding demands?
Mike: Until recently, we’ve had to rely on PET scans and cerebral spinal fluid testing—both of which are invasive, costly, time consuming, and can’t be scaled to meet this level of potential demand. Fortunately, advances in diagnostic methods have made blood-based detection of Alzheimer’s disease more reliable and available. One specific blood-based biomarker, pTau217, has emerged as the leader in precision and accuracy, offering sensitivity on par with PET and spinal fluid tests. Because this marker is used in blood tests, it can be made much more widely available, at lower cost, helping to reach and diagnose millions more patients who will then benefit from advanced treatments.
Dana: ALZpath co-founder Dr. Eric Reiman, a leading Alzheimer’s researcher and CEO of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, collaborated on a groundbreaking study subsequently published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that showed pTau217 blood tests outperformed MRI brain scans and were as effective as PET scans or spinal taps. These findings led Dr. Reiman and Jerre Stead, along with Venkat Shastri, to found ALZpath in 2020. Several studies have echoed those findings. Did the body of evidence supporting ALZpath’s proprietary pTau217 antibody play a role in your decision to join the company?
Mike: That JAMA study also made the front page of the New York Times – which says something about the significant societal and market implications of the science that brought me here. Eric wanted to create an organization that could collaborate with researchers and scientists on new discoveries and quickly bring those solutions to market.
Jerre saw the potential to hugely benefit patients and, along with other advancements, and keep us from losing another generation to Alzheimer’s. Their vision set the foundation for a company that is playing a central role in solving a huge global public health problem.
Dana: The ALZpath pTau217 antibody has really become the gold standard both on research and commercial diagnostic platforms. Can you talk about why ALZpath chose to make its proprietary antibody available through licensing agreements with multiple companies — including Roche, Beckman Coulter, Bio-Techne, Alamar Biosciences, and Quanterix, as well as laboratories, such as Neurocode – rather than developing assays and commercializing directly?
Mike: The main driver behind our business model is that we want to democratize access to early and accurate blood tests. The companies we partner with have global reach and regulatory, market, manufacturing and analytical expertise that will allow us to impact a large number of patients much faster. They can deliver at the scale that is needed to meet growing and increasingly urgent demands.
Dana: When do you see routine screenings for Alzheimer’s disease becoming as common as cholesterol checks or glucose tests in a doctor’s office?
Mike: The ALZpath Neurocode test is available to clinicians today, and both Roche and Beckman Coulter have received FDA Breakthrough Device designation, and they plan to have their commercial tests up and running in the next year. In some ways I’d say it can’t happen soon enough. There is demand today for families to have the knowledge they need to plan and seek appropriate care, make lifestyle changes to manage symptoms or seek the two disease modifying therapies already available. In the next few years, additional treatments and preventative therapeutics will come online — that will drive an unprecedented global demand and urgency for these blood tests.
Dana: What needs to happen to make ‘democratized’ access to an early and accurate Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis possible?
Mike: To make these tests more widely available, we will need to fully integrate them into our healthcare system, including enhanced physician education, expanded insurance coverage, and expedited regulatory approvals. The benefits of doing so will be transformative for all of us. Earlier diagnosis will enable proactive disease management, better treatment access, and improved quality of life for patients and caregivers. Early detection will also facilitate clinical trials that assess the safety and efficacy of early treatments. Successful trials, in turn, will pave the way for earlier treatment access. Beyond personal and public health benefits, early detection could yield profound economic impacts by reducing costly late-stage care, easing the financial burden on families and healthcare systems.
Dana: Congratulations on a big year for ALZpath, receiving recognition as a Time Magazine Best Invention of 2024, Fast Company Most Innovative Company (2025), and a Bronze Edison Best New Product Award in Neurological Treatments (2025).
Mike: Thanks, it is nice to be recognized. But the real reward will be when we have worldwide access to affordable and convenient blood tests for Alzheimer’s Disease. That will be the real game changer!
