The societal and economic burden of Alzheimer disease, the major contributor to dementia, is growing rapidly in Europe due to increasing lifespan and a decreasing ratio of working to retired populations (Box 1). The suffering of millions of individuals and their families as well as the costs to the European healthcare systems are dramatic. All stakeholders involved, including academic institutions, industry, patients' associations and funding agencies, are well aware of the challenge ahead and of the necessity to support research on Alzheimer disease and on neurodegenerative diseases in general. For this reason, resources made available through research programs of the European Union (EU) on Alzheimer disease have doubled in Framework Programme 6 (FP6) compared to the previous plan, Framework Programme 5 (FP5), with an approximate total funding of €40 million and €20 million, respectively, spread over 4 years each. Although these amounts may appear small with regard to the scale of the problem we are facing, it should be kept in mind that the budget for research and development managed by the EU Framework Programmes represents only approximately 5% of the total amount of public money spent on research in Europe. The EU is empowered to support research through its Framework Programmes, which are spread over several years and are essentially dedicated to collaborative research, that is, research undertaken by European consortia of varying sizes and selected on the basis of peer review by independent experts. Normally, the consortium size in FP6 is at least three different institutions from at least three different Member States or Associated States, but non-European countries can also participate and receive funds. These collaborative research projects usually last three to five years and are open to any organization, from academic institutions to private companies.
In terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALY), brain diseases contribute to 35% of the total burden of all diseases in Europe1. In particular, Alzheimer disease and other dementia represent 3% of the total burden of all diseases in Europe. This makes Alzheimer disease and other dementia the second-leading cause of brain disorders, after the unipolar depressive disorders and equal with alcohol-use disorders. Depending on the study, the prevalence of dementia ranges from 5.9% to 9.4% for European citizens older than 65, with Alzheimer disease representing most of the cases2,3,4. Prevalence of dementia, mainly Alzheimer disease, significantly increases with age, reaching 28.5% in the population older than 90. In total, close to 5,000,000 people are currently affected by dementia in the European Union. Increasing lifespan, however, will boost this number dramatically in the forthcoming years, with potentially more than 10 million people affected by dementia in the year 2050. Current costs linked to dementia are estimated at €55 billion per year in Europe5,6.
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