The Slow Pace Of Alzheimer’s Research Funding

The urgent need for funding of Alzheimer’s research and the need of providing care for those afflicted with the disease is constantly in the news.

In recognition of this urgent need, in 2011 the National Alzheimer's Project Act was put forward in part by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) with then-Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), and it determined that annual research funding of $2 billion was needed to achieve the goal of preventing and treating Alzheimer's by 2025. So what has been accomplished by the act so far?

Will President Trump Fund Alzheimer’s Research?

Around February of 2018 a group of 14 senators led by Senator Collins, founder and co-chair of the Senate Alzheimer's Task Force, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)  asked President Trump to boost funding allocated for Alzheimer's research in the fiscal year 2019 budget request he was to submit.

The group of senators wrote in a letter, “Alzheimer's is one of our nation's leading causes of death, and it is the only one of our nation's deadliest diseases without an effective means of prevention, treatment or cure,” The senators further stated in the letter that “If nothing is done to change the trajectory of Alzheimer's, the number of Americans afflicted with the disease is expected to more than triple by 2050,”

That cost is expected to be up to $1.1 trillion. However the proposed Senate funding bill for FY18 calling for $1.8 billion in funding for Alzheimer's research, an increase of $414 million, has not passed. Instead, legislators have been passing short-term funding measures.

Has then, the National Alzheimer’s Project Act Stalled? As of this report it seems it has.