Dementia Support Line
Government announces funding for neuro degenerative diseases – Alzheimer's Society responds
Monday 15 November 2021
The Government is to invest £375m over the next five years to improve understanding and treatment for a range of neuro degenerative diseases, including Lewy Body Dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Fiona Carragher, Director of Research and Influencing at Alzheimer's Society, said:
‘While more research funding for dementia is very welcome, this is less than half of the Moonshot announcement that was promised for dementia in the Conservative manifesto in 2019. We’re really concerned that this manifesto commitment is being watered down. And how much of this will actually go to dementia – the UK’s biggest killer?
‘Our recent report with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on dementia found that, despite chronic underfunding, dementia research had finally been gaining momentum and starting to deliver exciting results, but the impact of the pandemic has been devastating. Government inaction now risks setting dementia research back by ten years, as much-needed new treatments, diagnostic tests and care guidance will be held back from people.
‘Two years ago, the Conservative party promise was to double dementia research funding to £166m per year over ten years. We assume the Government will be making another announcement shortly to detail how they will achieve this.’
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With over 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK today and that number set to rise to 1 million by 2026, research has never been more important, yet it’s been chronically underfunded for many years. We are campaigning to make sure that dementia research gets the funding it needs.
