Dr. Weisman is the Director of Clinical Research at Abington Neurological Associates. While serving as the site’s director, he has conducted numerous clinical trials in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, among others, working with nearly every major sponsor and investigation to develop disease modifying drugs in Alzheimer’s disease.
The site participated in the first positive later stage trial in early Alzheimer’s disease, now FDA approved as Leqembi (lecanemab). ANA Clinical Research randomized the first subject in the successful phase 2 trial of donanemab worldwide. Dr. Weisman administered the first doses of lecanemab clinically in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Weisman devoted his research career towards advancing new therapies in Alzheimer’s disease. He devotes his clinical time to memory and cognitive problems. He is a proponent of an early diagnosis to take advantage of better therapies and trials for Alzheimer’s disease. He has been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer for fighting on behalf of his patients. Dr. Weisman has published numerous scientific articles and abstracts. In the popular press, published pieces include Seed Magazine on Buddhism, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and football, and the mind. His technical scientific papers appear in the journals Neurology, Archives of Neurology, Stroke and Seminars in Neurology. His Alzheimer trial work collaborations have been published in Neurology, New England Journal of Medicine, and Archives of Neurology.
Dr. Weisman’s research focuses on clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, and other dementias. Theraputic mechanisms include monoclonal antibodies against amyloid and tau, beta secretase inhibitors and modulators, anti-fibrillization/anti-oligermerization agents, polytherapy, and a variety of symptomatic treatments. Under Dr. Weisman’s direction, the ANA Clinical Trial Center has become nationally recognized and he was honored as an ADCS investigator. The site participated in the first positive later stage trial supporting a disease modifying signal in early Alzheimer’s disease. The site also has helped develop and test biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease and advance novel treatments in other conditions such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and pain.
About the Clinical Research Center
Articles and Essays
Aducanumab: Neither far nor deep
It should have been a happy day, celebrating a new era in Alzheimer treatment. June 7 should have marked the start of human victory against a dread disease. What should have happened did not. The win is hollow, more bitter than sweet.
It was once so common to be forgetful in old age that it was thought to be normal. But normal aging only includes things like tip-of-tongue memory loss and forgetting faces.
David Weisman, M.D., received a BA in philosophy from Franklin and Marshall College, then an MD from Pennsylvania State College of Medicine. After an internship at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco, he completed neurology residency at Yale, where he served as Chief resident. He then went to University California, San Diego for fellowship training in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. In 2008, Dr. Weisman founded the Clinical Research Center at Abington Neurological Associates.
The Philadelphia Cognitive Exam
Dr. Weisman invented, developed, and validated the Philadelphia Cognitive Exam (P-Cog), a computerized cognitive test and expert screening system to diagnose and detect dementia. The test can be administered in a clinician’s office. The 30-question test assesses verbal and visual memory, language, logic, frontal executive, math, and visual spatial domains. The P-Cog iPad app was designed to make cognitive testing accessible, user-friendly, and intuitive.
Leqembi is the first amyloid beta-directed antibody to be converted from an accelerated approval to a traditional approval for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
On March 22, Weisman and his fellow advisers voted unanimously that the drug was ‘reasonably likely’ to prove beneficial, paving the way for the agency to approve it Tuesday.
It was once so common to be forgetful in old age that it was thought to be normal. But normal aging only includes things like tip-of-tongue memory loss and forgetting faces.
Dr. Weisman has been interviewed in a new article in Neurology Insights regarding the unique challenges faced by Alzheimer’s patients and caregivers during the pandemic.
“If you have a loved one with dementia, you know this can be a heart-wrenching process. You cannot change the person. . . . You have to meet them where they are, roll with it, and speak with…
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