Study: Alzheimer's Association Calls for More Federal Research Funding

The Alzheimer's Association has urged Congress and President George W. Bush to increasing spending for Alzheimer research by about $120 million.

Specifically, the association wants Congress to create and fund imaging and genetics research programs that could lead to preventative therapies or a cure for Alzheimer's. Each iniative would cost $60 million each.

"The U.S. health care system is about to implode, and Alzheimer's disease will be the detonator," Sheldon Goldberg, the association's president and CEO, recently told a Senate appropriations subcommittee.

Goldberg said Congress and the President Bush have about 10 years to prevent a financial and human disaster. Otherwise, he noted that Alzheimer's will bankrupt family, state and federal budgets as up to 14 million baby boomers contract the disease.

Marilyn Albert, chair of the association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee, said the rate of scientific progress in unlocking the mysteries of the disease have been astounding, particularly in the past few years. She outlined a five-part strategy that the nation should follow:

• Maintain the pipeline of basic scientific discovery to develop the potential targets for treatment and prevention;
• Develop better animal models of Alzheimer's that will more closely parallel the disease in humans;
• Test the most promising potential targets for prevention in large-scale clinical trials, in persons who are cognitively normal and in those in the pre-clinical stage;
• Search for biomarkers that allow scientists to see evidence of the disease and monitor its progress without having to wait for evidence from cognitive testing such as imaging initiatives.
• Identify risk factors for Alzheimer's so compounds can be found that will work to prevent the disease.

Other sources: Alzheimer's Association