Make Alzheimer’s a top research priority, says public
pharmafile | April 1, 2008 | News story | |Â Â Â
The British public wants a greater focus on research into Alzheimer's disease, according to an opinion poll conducted by the ABPI.
Respondents said the disease should be the third most important area for pharma and the NHS after cancer and heart disease.
Dr Richard Barker, director general of the ABPI, said: "Alzheimer's disease and dementia cause anxiety and distress to some 700,000 people in the UK and their families and friends. The survey that we've conducted shows that people want both the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry to make this condition a priority."
The research was carried out to see whether pipeline treatments matched both public concerns and NHS priorities, and the ABPI said it showed an alignment between public desire, government action, academic research priorities and industry investment for the top three diseases.
Cancer was the top concern, with 72% listing it as a priority, followed by heart disease, which was cited by 33% of people in the survey. Next came Alzheimer's disease, with 11% of the public demanding greater national health spending and 12% wanting to see more research.
The ABPI survey also showed that though nearly two-thirds of the public said they were confident enough knowledge and skills are invested in researching the illnesses, only one-third believed enough money is invested into it.
Dr Barker added: "As a result of this research, ABPI would like to work with government and other key stakeholders to provide an annual 'state of the nation' report and inform the public better about all the clinical research – public and private – that is taking place."
The data has been published just weeks after author Terry Pratchett announced a major donation for research into the disease area. It was revealed that he suffered from Alzheimer's in late 2007.
UK pharma spends almost £4 billion a year on medicines research and the therapy areas with the most new treatments in development are cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis.
Industry figures show that 258 medicines are currently being investigated globally for Alzheimer's, with UK scientists contributing to 9% of them. More than 40 are already in trials.
Scientists in the UK are involved in the development of 33 medicines for heart disease and 312 to treat various forms of cancer.
