Tony Kingsley, Executive Vice President of Global Commercial Operations for Biogen Idec, joined NECN to discuss the latest drug discoveries.

Kingsley talked about the steps his company is taking to treat Alzheimer’s disease, which he said is a huge societal problem.

“The pace of scientific innovation is accelerating rapidly,” Kingsley said. “We need to develop some therapies that will treat Alzheimer’s that can slow the progression. We have a number of early stage programs that we think are very innovative in terms of the targets that they attack in Alzheimer’s disease.”

Kingsley also discussed Biogen Idec's development of a new drug used to treat multiple sclerosis.

In addition, Kingsley talked about the efforts his company makes to encourage kids to become scientists and the FDA drug approval process.