The White House is going to war against Alzheimer's disease. This week, the Obama administration, together with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced they will be setting an ambitious new goal to ensure there is an effective treatment for the devastating, brain-wasting disease by 2025. The plan is intended to give a “clear, national focus and attention on Alzheimer's that we've given to other diseases,” said Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, in a meeting at the NIH on Tuesday.
Alzheimer's disease current afflicts about 5.4 million Americans, with that number expected to grow as the Baby Boomers reach their 70s and 80s. According to the Alzheimer's Association, one in eight Americans 65 and older has the disease, which takes a serious toll on families and care resources. More than 15 million Americans currently care for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease, since professional long-term care is cost-prohibitive for many.
Not everyone is certain that the ambitious plan will work, and some feel the plan is too little. The NIH set aside $448 million in 2011 for Alzheimer's disease research. This is a small number compared to the nearly $5.5 billion set aside for cancer research and $3.1 billion for research into HIV/AIDS.
“It's great to have the attention drawn to the disease and have a temporary blip in funding,” Dr. Samuel Gandy, a professor of Alzheimer's disease research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, told ABC News this week . “But this is at least an order of magnitude off the figure that is likely to have meaningful impact,” he said.
The initiative is part of the National Alzheimer's Plan Act, signed into law by President Obama in January, which marks $50 million for Alzheimer's research in fiscal year 2012 and another $100 million in fiscal year 2013, reported ABC.
Alzheimer's disease research focuses on preventing the build-up of amyloid, a plaque that builds in the brains of disease sufferers. This week, a new $100 million study was announced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Banner Alzheimer's Institute (BAI), the University of Antioquia in Colombia and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. The organizations say they plan to conduct the first-ever prevention trial in cognitively healthy individuals who have been predicted to develop Alzheimer's disease because of their genetic history. The study will be the first to investigate whether an anti-amyloid treatment can stave off the disease, said the organizations in a press release. It will span two countries and hopefully open the door to prevention research in the fight against Alzheimer's.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
