New £30m research alliance will fast-track treatments for dementia

Alzheimer’s Research UK, has announced a £30m research collaboration, which will see nearly a hundred new research scientists fast-tracking the development of new treatments for dementia.

The three flagship drug discovery institutes at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and UCL (University College London) will make up a Drug Discovery Alliance dedicated to early stage drug discovery.

Dementia affects over 830,000 people in the UK and costs the UK economy £23bn a year and increasing political focus on improving the outlook for people with dementia in recent years has led to small increases in research funding, but there remains a desperate lack of effective treatments for those with the condition.

Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Academic research is a goldmine of knowledge about diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and by tapping into the innovation, creativity, ideas and flexibility of scientists in these universities, we can re-energise the search for new dementia treatments.

“Working in universities and hospitals alongside people affected by dementia and their families, academic researchers are best placed to take research breakthroughs and progress them into real world benefits for the people that so desperately need them.”

The alliance envisages becoming even bigger over time, hopefully “attracting new Institutes from across the globe to become the biggest joined-up dementia drug discovery effort in the world,” according to Dr Karran.

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has given his backing to the alliance, saying: “Dementia can be a devastating condition and I am committed to doing all that we can to help the thousands of people who live with it.

“These world-leading Institutes will bring new hope to people with dementia by boosting innovation and increasing collaboration so that we can achieve our aim of finding a cure or disease-modifying therapy.”

The Drug Discovery Alliance echoes similar initiatives driven by cancer charities over the last two decades, which are now starting to deliver effective new treatments to patients.

It has been 12 years since the last treatment for dementia was licensed in the UK and while current treatments help with symptoms, they are only modestly effective and not suitable for all dementias. At the G8 Dementia Summit one year ago, health leaders from across the world pledged a research ambition for a disease-modifying therapy for dementia by 2025.

Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Drug Discovery Alliance will make a major contribution to delivering this ambition – a network of Drug Discovery Institutes dedicated to early stage drug discovery. Each Institute will be led by a chief scientific officer working with some of the UK’s leading academic researchers based at each of the three universities and Alzheimer’s Research UK’s own in-house research leaders.