World Dementia Council meets for the first time
2 May 2014 03:39 PM
Council to champion
dementia research and development and unlock investment around the
world.
The first members of the World
Dementia Council have met for the first time in London in a bid to stimulate
the innovation and development of life-enhancing drugs, treatments and care for
people with dementia within a generation.
The Council members have been
appointed by the UK Government to support the World Dementia Envoy, Dr Dennis
Gillings CBE, to champion dementia research and development and unlock
investment in countries across the globe including throughout the G7 and
OECD.
At the inaugural meeting, the
Council considered how it could unlock the brainpower and financial muscle
required to meet the objective from the 2013 G8 Dementia Summit to identify a
cure or disease modifying therapy by 2025.
The World Health Organization
estimates 36 million people worldwide are living with dementia, with the global
cost of dementia estimated at US$604 billion.
The staggering economic impact
that dementia is having globally highlights the urgent need for global experts
to come together to encourage new research into dementia. To this end the
Council will work over the next year to identify the barriers to innovation and
improve the conditions around investment.
World Dementia Envoy, Dr Dennis
Gillings CBE, said:
Dementia is a ticking bomb and
with the global cost of dementia care expected to reach over $1 trillion by
2030 we can’t afford to do nothing.
Research is currently not
delivering the results we need. We need accurate diagnosis, effective treatment
and improved care and support to avoid serious economic and social
impacts.
The new members of the World
Dementia Council have given me great hope that together we will be able to meet
the challenges that face us. We are determined to be radical but practical in
the proposals that we bring forward. We will speak plainly to governments,
regulators and industry about the changes we need to see happen quickly. I look
forward to working with the Council to meet our aims of stimulating innovation
in research and development and unlocking new investment.
Along with Dr Dennis Gillings,
the members of the Council are:
- Sir William Castell, Chairman of
the Wellcome Trust
- Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical
Officer at the Department of Health, England
- Dr Tim Evans, Director for
Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank
- Dr Franz Humer, Chairman of
Roche
- Dr Yves Joanette, Scientific
Director, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of
Aging
- Professor Martin Knapp, Director
of Health, the London School of Economics;
- Dr Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Professor
of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and Science Advisor to
the Cabinet of Japan
- Yves Leterme, Deputy Secretary
General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development
- Raj Long, Senior Regulatory
Officer – Integrated Development, Global Health at the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation
- Professor Pierluigi Nicotera,
Scientific Director and Chairman of the Executive Board, German Centre for
Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Professor Ronald Petersen,
Director, Mayo Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
- Dr Paul Stoffels, Global Chair
of Johnson & Johnson
- George Vradenburg, President and
Chairman of the Vradenburg Foundation and USAgainst
Alzheimer’s
The work of the World Dementia
Council follows on from the 2013 G8 dementia summit hosted in London in
December, in which the countries agreed to work together to build an
international effort to double funding for dementia research, increase the
number of people involved in clinical trials and to set an ambition to identify
a cure or disease-modifying therapy for dementia by 2025.