Advocacy group decries underfunding of dementia research

Alzheimer's and other dementias will cost 1 percent of the gross domestic product globally this year and that treatment tab will grow, making urgent the need for more research toward a cure, an advocacy group said.

Seventy percent of an estimated $604 billion will be paid in North America and Western Europe, London-based Alzheimer's Disease International, said in a report yesterday. The global price will exceed $1 trillion annually by 2030, with 65.7 million people affected, up from 35.6 million in 2010, according to the report.

Alzheimer's strikes mostly people 65 or older.

While hurting more people than cancer or heart disease, dementia attracts less research money, the organization said. Governments worldwide need to "make dementia a health priority" baby boomers begin to turn 65 next year, the group urged.

"There's inadequate funding right now, because there is inadequate awareness and inadequate concern," said Bill Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association, a nonprofit group based in Chicago. "We are in the early stages of an epidemic, and every day we waste now is a day we don't have."

Alzheimer's Disease International is a federation of national associations, including the Chicago-based group, that press governments to allot more resources to fight dementia.

The report, released to mark World Alzheimer's Day, cites published British data that show funding would have to rise 15-fold to match the research commitment in heart disease and 30-fold to match cancer funding.

"There's no question that this is a public-health crisis," said Laura Carstensen, the director of the Center on Longevity at Stanford University.

She called the amount of money allocated for Alzheimer's "ridiculously low," given the numbers of people affected.