UK Prime Minister to announce £15 million dementia research fund in Autumn Statement

The UK prime minister David Cameron is to announce a £15 million ($24 million) commitment to a new fund to boost dementia research in the Autumn Statement, which will be made tomorrow. The fund will focus on research to develop new treatments for dementia and bringing in further private-sector investment to back research projects.

Hilary Evans, director of external affairs at Alzheimer's Research UK, the UK’s leading dementia research charity, said: "Alzheimer's Research UK welcomes today's announcement of extra investment in research, this represents another step forward in the fight to tackle what is our greatest health challenge and a devastating condition. The treatments available for people with dementia offer scant relief and are simply not good enough – we need a therapy that acts to slow or stop disease in its tracks. If we could produce a treatment that delayed onset by five years, a third fewer people would ever experience the devastation of dementia. The new funds complement Alzheimer's Research UK's own major investment in dementia drug discovery and our efforts to end the tortuous wait for an effective treatment that people deserve."

This announcement continues the UK’s commitment to dementia research after it used its G8 presidency in 2013 to hold the first Dementia Summit, in which G8 countries committed to finding a disease-modifying treatment by 2025. The cost of dementia in the UK has already exceeded £26 billion a year.