Despite growing recognition of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as a policy priority, current efforts across Europe remain insufficient. A new report, authored by Charles River Associates (CRA) and funded by Biogen, aims to assess the economic case for prioritising AD policy by estimating how the socioeconomic burden of the disease in the EU4/UK from 2026 to 2036 could be affected by a package of policies designed to enable access to diagnosis and treatment.
The analysis highlighted specific areas where more urgent action is needed, specifically:
Accelerating diagnosing patients at scale;
Supporting expansion of infrastructure and capacity over time; and
Establishing necessary access and reimbursement frameworks.
Drawing on well-established modelling approaches and recent studies on the costs of the disease and epidemiological forecasts, the methodology involved estimating a baseline on the current socioeconomic burden due to AD; modelling the future socioeconomic burden through to 2036 under a baseline scenario of no policy prioritisation; and determining the future socioeconomic burden under a scenario in which widespread, active, and effective AD policy prioritisation enables diagnosis, treatment, and management of the disease.
The authors found that the potential socioeconomic benefits from comprehensive, active, and effective AD policy prioritisation could cumulatively reach EUR 182 billion for the EU4/UK for 2026-2036.
You can download the report and the related infographic, here: https://www.crai.com/insights-events/publications/assessing-the-economic-case-for-alzheimers-disease-policy-prioritisation/
