UK government doubles dementia funding
pharmafile | December 11, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Alzheimer's, Cameron, Merck, Obama, dementia
UK prime minister David Cameron has announced that the government is to increase funding research into dementia, spending £52 million in 2012-13 and up to £66 million by 2015, while attempting to double R&D across the board by 2025.
Today London is hosting the first summit of the G8 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK and the US – on dementia, which is expected to result in further collaboration on research and data sharing.
If this is taken forward, it will help put work to find treatments for dementia on a similar global footing to the fight against other serious diseases – and this is certainly what Cameron is hoping for.
“We must also work globally, with nations, business and scientists from all over the world working together as we did with cancer, and with HIV and AIDS,” he said.
“Today, we will get some of the most powerful nations around the table in London to agree how we must go forward together, working towards that next big breakthrough,” Cameron added.
Meanwhile the Medical Research Council (MRC) is to put £150 million into UK clinical research, with £50 million going towards better understanding how dementia affects the brain and to improve early detection.
On the latter point, another £25 million will go to the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit for work on imaging techniques to pick up the early signs of dementia that current diagnostic tests would miss.
ABPI chief executive Stephen Whitehead said: “We also welcome the government’s investment in life sciences and commitment to support more research and collaboration into dementia.”
In addition the newly-formed UK Dementia Platform will also bring together researchers and scientists from the public and private sectors, allowing them to swap ideas and expertise.
And the Europe-wide Innovative Medicines Initiative is investing £44 million in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s drugs, and the European Commission is to put up £460 million and issue a call for proposals on research into neurodegenerative diseases.
The World Health Organisation predicts that numbers of people with dementia worldwide – currently 36 million – will nearly double every two decades.
If its forecast is accurate, 66 million people will have dementia in 2030 and more than 115 million by 2050 – with the cost to global healthcare standing at an estimated £370 billion, or 1% of the world’s GDP.
Merck advances Alzheimer’s candidate
Away from the G8 Summit on dementia, Merck has announced it is to move its investigational Alzheimer’s treatment MK-8931 into late-stage trials after a positive report from the data monitoring committee (DMC).
The novel investigational oral β-amyloid precursor protein site-cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor has completed a safety analysis, which means Merck will continue with the Phase II/III EPOCH study in patients with mild to moderate forms of the disease.
The manufacturer is also beginning to dose patients in a the Phase III APECS study looking at MK-8931 in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (also known as prodromal Alzheimer’s disease).
“We are pleased to receive the DMC’s recommendation and look forward to continuing the clinical development programme for MK-8931,” said David Michelson, vice president, neuroscience at Merck Research Laboratories. “Studies to evaluate potential new treatment options are critical as the global health and financial burden of Alzheimer’s disease grows.”
Merck is also conducting a Phase II clinical trial for MK-7622, an investigational adjunctive therapy to donepezil, the key ingredient in Eisai’s out-of-patent Aricept, for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
Adam Hill
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