Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced a £68m fund to help research new treatments for dementia through a global partnership between major pharmaceutical companies and the UK Government.
Biogen, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Lilly and Pfizer have all committed in principle to investing in the project alongside Alzheimer’s Research UK.
The Government has worked with the financial services company JP Morgan to structure the Dementia Discovery Fund as a means of financing dementia research.
The funds committed by investors today include £15m that the Government announced in the autumn last year.
Speaking at a World Health Organization conference on global action against dementia, Mr Hunt said: ‘The new fund is a unique collaboration, bringing together the combined expertise of government, financial, industry and charity partners.
‘It marks a global consensus that research needs greater priority and that new sources of finance are needed to translate the best science into effective treatments.’
Mr Hunt is hopeful of bringing in more investors in future.
