ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s Applauds Senate Appropriations Committee Approval of $84 Million Increase in Funding for NIA Alzheimer’s Research and $20 Million for Alzheimer’s Services and Supports
Researchers Call for More Rapid Growth in Research Funding to Achieve National Goal of Stopping Alzheimer’s by 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday included in its fiscal year (FY) 2014 bill an $84 million increase in funding for critical research at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (NIA), the Institute with the primary responsibility for preventing, treating and curing Alzheimer’s. Additionally, yesterday’s mark-up allocates $20 million in funding for the new Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative, which will bolster training and other resources for long-term care service providers and individual Alzheimer’s caregivers.
One in three seniors in the United States dies with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia, and this disease costs the country $203 billion annually. By 2050, Alzheimer’s-related expenses are projected to reach $1 trillion per year.
Dr. David Morgan, Ph.D., CEO of the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute at the University of South Florida, and a Founding Member of ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s released the following statement in response to the Committee’s actions:
“The members of ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s believe that preventing or effectively treating Alzheimer’s by 2025 is achievable, but only with additional public and private resources. We applaud the Committee for taking a step in the right direction towards achieving this goal, and we urge Congress to follow through and deliver these funds to NIA as quickly as possible.
“However, with more than 5 million Americans currently suffering from Alzheimer’s at an annual cost of $200 billion – and that number on course to triple in the next few decades – we need an even more a robust commitment to Alzheimer’s research funding. In order to address the scale of the human and economic impact of this disease, we urge Congress to respect the recommendations of the public members of the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services and double the current level of funding allocated to Alzheimer’s research at NIH as part of an effort to ramp up to $2 billion within five years.
“From polio to cancer and from heart disease to HIV/AIDS, we have seen that a commitment to research has saved trillions in costs and countless lives. A more robust commitment to Alzheimer’s disease research has the same potential to stop this disease from robbing individuals of their identity and destroying the nation’s health and financial well-being”
For more information or to speak to Dr. David Morgan or other members of ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s, please contact Kyle Moler at [email protected] or 202-478-6173.
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ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s, launched in May 2012, is a network of over 370 researchers dedicated to increasing awareness about Alzheimer’s disease and advocating for more research funding and reforms with the goal of stopping Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. For more information, please visit: www.