On August 23rd the U.S. Senate voted to pass the largest increase in history earmarked for Alzheimer’s Research. The increase of $425 million would go to Alzheimer’s and dementia research funding at the National Institutes of Health. This funding would bring the country’s total investment to $2.34 billion for fiscal year 2019. If signed into law, this would mark the fourth year in a row that the United States Congress has addressed the growing Alzheimer’s crisis through funding research.
We know the numbers by now, but to recap: more than five million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, the most expensive disease in the country. What was once misunderstand as “old-timers disease” is now a known and growing public health crisis in this country. Threatening to bankrupt Medicare, it’s projected that as many as 14 million Americans could be living with Alzheimer’s by 2050.
“Every 65 seconds someone in the U.S. develops the disease,” said Harry Johns, Alzheimer’s Association and Alzheimer’s Impact Movement (AIM) President and CEO. “But, thanks to increased NIH funding, American scientists are now advancing basic disease knowledge, ways to reduce risk, new biomarkers for early diagnosis and drug targeting, and developing the needed treatments to move to clinical testing.”
Once the legislation is approved by a conference committee and signed into law, this amount will surpass the $2 billion per year experts have said is needed to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s by the year 2025.
If you enjoyed reading this blog on the latest Alzheimer’s news, check out some of our other blogs discussing the science of dementia HERE.