Administration’s Proposed Funding Increase for Alzheimer’s Research a “First Step”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2011

CONTACT: KYLE MOLER
202-478-6173, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Obama Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services announced its proposal to increase, by $80 million over the current fiscal year, federal funding for Alzheimer’s research as one of the concrete steps in support of its national draft framework to stop the disease by 2025. This is the first time a Presidential Administration has made Alzheimer’s disease, which affects more than 5 million Americans and will cost the nation $2 trillion over the next decade, a budgetary priority. USAgainstAlzheimer’s, a national advocacy network and campaign organization, released the following statement in response to today’s announcement:

“We are at a pivotal moment in the fight against Alzheimer’s. In order to meet or beat the goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer’s by 2025, a ‘business as usual’ approach is simply not acceptable,” said George Vradenburg, co-founder and chairman of USAgainstAlzheimer’s. “This increase in funding is a modest first step. We intend to work with Congress to mobilize the scale of resources needed to match the scale of the fiscal and health challenge of stopping Alzheimer’s in the next decade. We have just begun this fight against Alzheimer’s in earnest; we have a long way to go.”

While the cost of Alzheimer’s is expected to rise to $2 trillion over the next decade, the U.S. currently spends only $450 million annually on research, which amounts to approximately $90 per person living with the disease.

Meryl Comer, a Senior Advisor to USAgainstAlzheimer's and member of the USAgainstAlzheimer's Network Board is a caregiver to her husband who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 58. “Success in the fight against Alzheimer’s will not only mean enormous cost savings for the American people; it will save families the incomparable pain of watching a loved one slip away into the shadows of the disease,” said Comer. “Our government must send a clear message to the millions of Alzheimer’s patients, advocates and caregivers in this country - myself included - that our nation will not turn a blind eye to this disease; that there is hope for the future that our children will not have to bear the burden and pay the price of this cruel disease.”

Over the past year, USAgainstAlzheimer’s and its advocates have engaged with lawmakers on the issue of Alzheimer’s, and have spoken out in support of the development of an aggressive national plan to stop the disease by 2020.

USAgainstAlzheimer’s was also instrumental in the development of the "Spending Reductions through Innovations in Therapies (SPRINT) Agenda Act of 2012,” a landmark, bipartisan bill introduced in Congress last week, which would spur innovation in research and drug development for chronic health conditions like Alzheimer’s.

For more information about USAgainstAlzheimer’s work, or to set up an interview with Meryl Comer, please contact Kyle Moler at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)or 202-478-6173.

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USAgainstAlzheimer’s is a national advocacy campaign and advocacy network committed to stopping Alzheimer’s by 2020. An independent non-profit organization working in partnership with the Alzheimer’s community, USAgainstAlzheimer’s works to advance policies and elect candidates dedicated to stopping the disease by supporting research for a cure. For more information about USAgainstAlzheimer’s, visit http://www.usagainstalzheimers.org/.