'New Partnership to Accelerate the Fight Against Alzheimer’s'

 The World Economic Forum is partnering with the Global CEO Initiative (CEOi) to form a coalition of public and private stakeholders – including pharmaceutical manufacturers, biotech companies, governments, international organizations, foundations and research agencies – to catalyse the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s (a result of rapid ageing that causes dementia), is the most expensive chronic condition of the world’s growing ageing population. Dementia is the seventh leading cause of death worldwide, cost the world $1.25 trillion in 2018, and affected about 50 million people in 2019. According to the US Alzheimer’s Association, dementia is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and every 65 seconds, someone in the country develops the disease.

Despite many efforts from various actors and recent promising developments, the global response to the disease has not matched the scope and scale of the challenge, with no new drugs broadly to market in 15 years. Without major breakthroughs, the number of people affected will triple by 2050, to 152 million.

“Alzheimer’s disease is uniquely devastating, and there is urgent need to address the current hurdles to progress. This effort will bring together the necessary stakeholders to prioritize and resource an engaged, efficient health system and bring much-needed detection, diagnosis and treatments to those affected by the disease,” said Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Shaping the Future of Health and Health Care, World Economic Forum.

“Alzheimer’s is the biggest public health crisis of the 21st century, requiring this multi-stakeholder initiative to catalyze coordinated global action at the scope and scale of the response to AIDS, cancer and climate change,” said George Vradenburg, founder of the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease and chairman and co-founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s.

The CEOi-WEF partnership will explore catalytic actions in four areas: pre-clinical research to advance the understanding of the disease in global cohorts, attract more capital by lowering the risks to investment in biomarkers, develop standing clinical trial platforms, and advance healthcare system readiness in the fields of detection, diagnosis, infrastructure and access. The main focus of the year ahead is to secure commitments from policymakers and business leaders through the development of a business plan that will include key activities and metrics for the coalition’s work.

https://www.weforum.org/press/2020/01/new-partnership-to-accelerate-the-fight-against-alzheimer-s-disease/