G8 Summit information -round up

At this week’s G8 summit on Dementia, called by the UK as part of its presidency, health and science leaders agreed a package of measures to address the growing global health, social and economic issue of the condition. Currently 36 million people across the world have dementia and the World Health Organisation predicts that numbers will nearly double every two decades.

The commitments made this week by the G8 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and USA included;

• setting an ambition to identify a cure or a disease-modifying therapy for dementia by 2025 – backed by a commitment to together significantly increase the amount spent on dementia research and increase the number of people involved in clinical trials and studies on dementia;
• a new Global Envoy for Dementia Innovation, following in the footsteps of global envoys on HIV and Aids and on Climate Change – the Global Envoy will bring together international expertise to stimulate innovation and co-ordinate international efforts to attract new sources of finance, including exploring the possibility of a new private and philanthropic fund to support global dementia innovation;
• developing an international action plan for research – in particular to identify current gaps and how to fill them; sharing information and data from dementia research studies across the G8 countries to work together and get the best return on investment in research; and
• encouraging open access to all publicly-funded dementia research to make data and results available for 
• further research as quickly as possible.

Dementia Carer Voices  Director, Irene Oldfather said “Whilst the global focus on Alzheimer's and dementia which the G8 has brought about is very welcome, we must move from rhetoric to reality to ensure the summit has a lasting legacy for people with dementia and their carers.  Until these aspirations for dementia research are realised, it is vital that we do more to recognise and support our unsung heroes who display incredible resilience living with and caring for those with the condition.”