The Government has announced a £48 million public-private partnership to accelerate dementia research, with ministers saying the programme will help speed up clinical trials and support the development of new treatments for one of the biggest challenges facing health and social care.
The initiative combines £33 million of government funding through the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme with further investment from Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Gates Ventures.
The funding will support the BARBARA Alliance, a UK-wide partnership spanning government, industry, academia, charities and people living with dementia, and the creation of a co-ordinated platform linking UK health data, research and clinical trial capabilities, making it easier for researchers to identify participants and for people across the country to take part in studies, the government said.
It added the programme will aim to tackle one of the biggest barriers facing dementia research by recruiting more people into clinical trials.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “For too long, we have accepted dementia as something to be managed later in life, rather than a disease we can defeat.
“I don’t accept that. In fact, I have real hope that we can come together and do exactly that,” he added.
National priority
Mr Burnham also announced that dementia will be one of the first priorities for the new Health Data Research Service (HDRS), a £600m government and Wellcome Trust initiative aimed at bringing NHS and research data together to help the identification of suitable patients and support the development of new medicines.
Nearly one million people are currently living with dementia in the UK and around one in two people will be affected by the condition during their lifetime, either through receiving a diagnosis, providing care or both.
Meanwhile, the disease is estimated to cost the UK more than £42 billion a year, with most of that burden falling on social care and unpaid carers.
Mr Burnham said he wanted Britain “to be the country that makes the breakthrough and delivers the cure for dementia the world has been waiting for”. He added that the investment would sit alongside plans for a National Care Service and wider social care reform.
“This investment goes hand in hand with our plans for a National Care Service, helping ensure that people living with dementia get the care and support they need, and giving families peace of mind that their loved ones will be cared for,” he said.
The Government is also encouraging the public to participate in dementia studies through the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Join Dementia Research service, which is open to adults with or without a dementia diagnosis.
It also follows the launch of UKRI’s £80 million Dementia Challenge last week, which aims to test nine innovative technologies in the NHS, including faster MRI brain scans and remote cognitive assessments, to speed up diagnosis and improve patient outcomes. The programme aims to help ensure 92% of people receive a diagnosis within 18 weeks of referral, up from around 60% today, by rapidly scaling innovations that prove they work in real-world settings.
