WASHINGTON, DC, September 6, 2017—The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies has advanced a fiscal year 2018 funding bill that would increase Alzheimer’s research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $414 million, part of a $1.1 billion overall increase at NIH.

UsAgainstAlzheimer’s applauds this bipartisan acknowledgement of Alzheimer’s as a game-changing national public health, economic, and social threat and calls on the full Senate appropriations committee to finalize this investment in research for a disease that affects 5.5 million Americans and costs the nation more than $250 billion.

“This funding increase is an important step in the cancer-sized solution that’s needed to defeat the cancer-sized problem of Alzheimer’s. There is greater awareness today of the growing health, economic, and social impact of the disease and thus the importance of an increasingly robust response,” said George Vradenburg, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Co-Founder and Chairman. “We are grateful for the leadership of the Labor-HHS subcommittee chairman, Senator Roy Blunt, and colleagues for prioritizing innovation against a disease that is poised to be a great burden on families, and the health care system, for years to come. The burgeoning Alzheimer’s movement will not wait for much-needed progress.”

The subcommittee’s bill follows action by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, which in July approved $400 million in funding in FY 2018 for Alzheimer’s research. It also comes in addition to a 40 percent increase in Alzheimer’s funding at NIH under the FY17 omnibus budget, suggesting a shift in the way Alzheimer’s disease – which has been plagued by decades of underinvestment – is funded. If enacted, total funding for Alzheimer’s research at NIH would increase to $1.8 billion in FY 2018, closer to the $2 billion that Alzheimer’s researchers years ago said should be the minimum level to achieve the national goal of stopping Alzheimer’s by 2025.

UsAgainstAlzheimer’s will continue to work closely with Congressional leaders to cement these increases in the final FY18 budget.

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UsAgainstAlzheimer’s (UsA2) is an innovative non-profit organization demanding – and delivering – a solution to Alzheimer’s. Driven by the suffering of millions of families, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s presses for greater urgency from government, industry and the scientific community in the quest for an Alzheimer's cure – accomplishing this through effective leadership, collaborative advocacy, and strategic investments.

Founded in 2010, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s has worked across sectors to: (1) secure the national goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer’s by 2025 and help secure nearly $500 million in additional public funding for Alzheimer’s research over the past few years; (2) drive global efforts that resulted in the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations, the G7, to embrace a similar 2025 goal and to call for greater levels of research investment and collaboration; and (3) forge industry commitments to improve efficiencies for an expedited drug discovery and approval process. 

Contact: Jeannette O’Connor 

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 202-263-2580