The sobering reality of dementia in the UK becomes clear. Nearly one million people are living with this devastating condition, and unfortunately, none of them will survive. This is a crisis we cannot accept.
Dementia’s impact extends far beyond the people diagnosed. It profoundly affects their families and caregivers. Informal carers in the UK provide 1.3 billion hours of care annually, often sacrificing their own financial stability and career opportunities – only 18 per cent of dementia carers remain in paid employment.
The economic impact of dementia is equally staggering, costing the UK £42bn each year, a figure set to rise as our population ages. However, recent breakthroughs in research offer a powerful reason for optimism and action.
With a new government focussed on marrying the health and life sciences sectors, the UK has the potential to become an international powerhouse for developing and delivering new dementia treatments. Now is the time to act.
The promise of dementia research
For years, dementia research has been viewed globally as a costly, hopeless cause and investors have chased larger rewards in areas like cancer. But this is now far from the case. It’s a field that is now thriving and poised to deliver benefits not just to people living with dementia, but to the whole of society.
Innovative methods for early and accurate diagnosis, such as blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease, are showing significant promise. New treatments that can alter the progression of Alzheimer’s are becoming available worldwide. New insights are showing how we can reduce the prevalence of dementia by addressing factors that affect our brain health.
Currently, over 160 trials are testing around 125 experimental treatments for Alzheimer’s globally, with more than 30 in phase 3 trials. The UK, with its rich heritage of dementia research, boasts a winning combination of talented scientists funded through private and public investment, working in partnership with world-leading initiatives and universities. This creates an ideal platform to lead the search for a cure for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
However, this potential is at risk if the government fails to support research.
Labour’s opportunity
In his first week in office, Wes Streeting emphasised the role of the Department of Health and Social Care as an “economic growth department”. This underscores the crucial link between the nation’s health and its economic prosperity, and aligns perfectly with the party’s commitment to making Britain a leader in transforming the treatment of dementia.
An analysis by Alzheimer’s Research UK last year showed that for every £1 spent on dementia research, there’s a £2.59 return to the economy – a figure set to grow exponentially with increased investment. It’s clear that when we invest in dementia research, we win twice over – we make discoveries that lead to effective treatments, while also bolstering the nation’s economy.
Continued investment in researchers, and the facilities and technologies that support them, is vital if Labour are to harness the UK’s research potential and reap its rewards twice over.
Streamlining clinical research within the NHS – making it faster, more transparent, and more consistent – could not be timelier. The UK’s global ranking for trial initiation fell from 2nd to 6th place between 2014 and 2023, and we now have the lowest proportion of phase 3 trial sites for dementia research worldwide.
The key to reversing this trend lies in embedding research within the NHS. As a public health service serving a diverse population, the NHS is ideally positioned to attract global life sciences investment. However, research funding is currently unevenly distributed, with 54 per cent concentrated in London and the south east. To truly advance research and make it more inclusive, investments must be spread more broadly.
By building research in regions with historically less activity and infrastructure, the NHS can open significant opportunities for equitable participation in clinical trials, ultimately driving forward both scientific progress and public health outcomes.
Realising the full potential of research and development, as well as clinical trials in the UK will also rely on greater collaboration between industry, the NHS and the government. This will ultimately deliver improved health outcomes for patients in the UK and help attract global investment – just as we saw with Covid vaccines.
A tipping point
Labour’s leadership comes at a tipping point for dementia research. To seize this opportunity, the government must prioritise dementia within its approach to life sciences, committing to a comprehensive and sustainable plan for research funding that covers everything from experimental discovery to clinical trials. In addition, embedding research into clinical care must be a central tenant of the government’s NHS mission.
Just as investment in cancer research has saved millions of lives, we will not stop until we achieve the same transformative results for dementia.
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