Summary
The World Dementia Council (WDC) has announced further steps to speed-up dementia research and increase investment, explaining plans agreed at a second meeting at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris during July 2014.
The four main areas of planned activity include:
Integrated Development: efforts to reduce barriers, encourage regulatory flexibility and speed the development of medicines from research to market. This work is led by Raj Long: Senior Regulatory Officer for Integrated Development in Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Finance and Incentives: efforts to increase relatively low levels investment and funding for dementia innovation. This involves exploring new types and sources of funding. The drug development process is to be reviewed, with development of new models aimed at supporting early stage and late stage drug development. Later work is expected to work more broadly on care innovation and basic science. JP Morgan will assist the WDC in the development of proposals.
Open Science: efforts to harness fully the potential of “open source” scientific information resources for sharing information and knowledge, with a view to accelerating progress in the development of disease-modifying treatments and care approaches. Efforts will be made to minimise wasteful duplication of effort and to ensure the maximum availability of important knowledge resources. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and OECD will assist the WDC in these aspects of innovation.
Public Health / Prevention: following the Blackfriars Consensus Statement earlier this year, the WDC will conduct an evidence review into various risk factors for dementia, such as diabetes and heart disease. The public health-related aspects of lifestyle and prevention will be addressed. Harry Johns, President and CEO of Alzheimer’s Association, will lead this review.
Reference
WDC announce drive to speed up dementia research and increase investment. London: Department of Health / Dementia Challenge / World Dementia Council, September 1st 2014.
This relates to:
Reference
Second World Dementia Council Meeting Communique. London: World Dementia Council (WDC), September 1st 2014.
Am I the only person to be disappointed about how low down the list investment in care comes here? This seems to be repeated across most current policy initiatives for dementia – new drugs or bust. Where is the commitment to understanding and improving care processes and practices?