The Drug Discovery research programme will take therapies that are already being used to treat other conditions and test their suitability for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
It is hoped that the Alzheimer’s Society programme, which builds on UK excellence in medicine, could open the door to powerful new treatments for the condition, which could be developed and adapted within 10 years.
Six drugs have so far been fast-tracked for new studies. Researchers will then carry out clinical trials to see if the drugs can be adapted in a way that will help relieve the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Scientists also hope that the project, which will test the first three drugs over a five to 10-year period at a cost of £15 million as opposed to the more typical cost of more than £600 million over a 20-year period when starting from scratch, will boost the longevity of the treatments by around five years.
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This is an exciting day in the race to find new treatments and eventually a cure for people with dementia. There are not enough clinical trials for dementia happening in the UK which is why Alzheimer’s Society is responding by launching Drug Discovery.
“We need £4,000 every day for the next 10 years for the first phase of this ground-breaking initiative and we are asking all those concerned with dementia to help us raise this. Together we can transform hundreds of thousands of lives.”  Source: UKTI Newsletter 09MAY2011