UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Applauds House Committee’s $400 Million Increase for Alzheimer’s Funding

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WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2017—The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies has advanced a fiscal year 2018 funding bill that would increase Alzheimer’s research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by approximately $400 million, part of a $1.1 billion overall increase at NIH.

UsAgainstAlzheimer’s applauds this bi-partisan acknowledgement of Alzheimer’s as a game-changing national public health threat and calls on the full House appropriations committee to finalize this investment in research for a disease that affects 5.5 million Americans and costs the nation more than $250 billion.

“We are grateful for the leadership of the Labor-HHS subcommittee chairman, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), and colleagues for prioritizing innovation against a disease that is poised to be a great burden on families, and the health care system, for years to come,” said George Vradenburg, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Co-Founder and Chairman. “The burgeoning Alzheimer’s movement will not wait for much-needed progress. We need a cancer-sized solution to defeat this cancer-sized problem, and this proposed funding increase is an important next step.”

The subcommittee’s bill follows a recent 40-percent increase in Alzheimer’s funding at NIH under the FY17 omnibus budget, suggesting a shift in the way Alzheimer’s disease – which has been plagued by decades of underinvestment – is funded. If enacted, total funding for Alzheimer’s research at NIH would increase to $1.8 million in FY 2018, closer to the $2 billion that Alzheimer’s researchers have said should be the minimum level to achieve the national goal of stopping Alzheimer’s by 2025.

The bill will also include an additional $76 million in funding for the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative and $80 million for the Precision Medicine Initiative.

UsAgainstAlzheimer’s will continue to work closely with Congressional leaders to cement these increases in the final FY18 budget.

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UsAgainstAlzheimer’s (UsA2) is an innovative non-profit organization demanding – and delivering – a solution to Alzheimer’s. Driven by the suffering of millions of families, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s presses for greater urgency from government, industry and the scientific community in the quest for an Alzheimer's cure – accomplishing this through effective leadership, collaborative advocacy, and strategic investments.

Founded in 2010, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s has worked across sectors to: (1) secure the national goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer’s by 2025 and help secure nearly $500 million in additional public funding for Alzheimer’s research over the past few years; (2) drive global efforts that resulted in the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations, the G7 group, to embrace a similar 2025 goal and to call for greater levels of research investment and collaboration; and (3) forge industry commitments to improve efficiencies for an expedited drug discovery and approval process.