G8 summit funds against dementia until 2025

Industrial nations want to achieve significant success in the fight against dementia by 2025

13/12/2013

Dementia is a growing global problem that requires united international efforts to achieve significant progress in prevention and treatment over the next few decades. The heads of state and health ministers of the major industrial nations came to this conclusion at the G8 summit on dementia. They therefore adopted a joint declaration aimed at achieving a breakthrough in the fight against dementia by 2025.

Today, around 35 million people worldwide already suffer from dementia. In view of the demographic development, the situation in particular in the industrialized nations, but also increasingly in other countries, will sharply increase by the year 2030, according to the experts' consensus assessment at the G8 dementia summit. In Germany, according to the Federal Ministry of Health, currently 1.4 million people suffer from dementia, with two-thirds of them suffering from the particular form of dementia Alzheimer's. 40,000 new cases were reported each year, and by 2030 the number of people with dementia in Germany could increase to around 2.2 million (almost doubling within the next 30 years), according to the ministry's announcement. Health ministers from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the United States, Canada and Russia met at the G8 summit in London to share with medical professionals, pharmaceutical industry representatives and experts from various aid organizations on the challenges of dealing with the foreseeable increase to discuss dementia and to develop solutions.

Until 2025 a cure for dementia?
British Prime Minister David Cameron said at the G8 summit that states have a common goal to identify a cure by 2025 or to develop disease modifying therapy that can alleviate symptoms. To achieve the goal, a significant increase in research expenditure had been agreed. For example, the United Kingdom will increase the funding provided to 146 million euros by 2022, and the EU wants to provide around 1.2 billion euros for health research in general - including dementia research - by 2015, according to EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg. Stay so far „the exact causes of dementia despite extensive research efforts with considerable financial and human resources still largely unexplained“, the Federal Ministry of Health reports in its press release on the G8 summit. Here, the basic research must be significantly expanded, because for a future development of drugs is the „Further research on the molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases is an essential prerequisite.“ In order to advance research, the number of people involved in clinical trials and studies on dementia should also be significantly increased.

International action plan for dementia research
The industrial nations also agreed in their statement to develop an international action plan for research to better coordinate research efforts. In addition, the data and results obtained should be made freely available for further research. Outgoing Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr said that the G8 Dementia Summit will draw world public attention to this important topic. „Dementia affects more and more people in an aging population. That is a challenge for social security systems“, Bahr continues. Germany has been addressing the challenges of dementia for many years. Everyone would benefit from the international exchange that has now begun. Germany could do this with his „Experience from the flagship project Dementia, the Future Workshop Dementia and the Alliance for People with Dementia and the Nursing Reorientation Act.“ (Fp)