On 9 October, the UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that he was making dementia research a national priority with GBP 48 million (EUR 57.2 million) being invested to combat dementia through the BARBARA Alliance in order to speed up recruitment to clinical trials and developing treatments. The Prime Minister, whose father Roy died last month after living with Alzheimer’s disease, said he wanted Britain “to be the country that makes the breakthrough”.
The BARBARA Alliance was created through the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals Programme, which brings together government, industry, charities, researchers and the UK’s national health service (NHS). The funding is delivered through a partnership between BARBARA and key founding partners Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Gates Ventures.
The Prime Minister set out his ambition to prioritise dementia research alongside a much-needed social care reform announcement made in September, aims to transform understanding of dementia, how it is treated, and the support for people living with the condition.
