Burnham announces £48m dementia research partnership and makes cure a national priority

Mixed · 2Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a £48million partnership with healthcare firms and charities to speed up research into dementia treatments, and said the work would be a national priority. 1 2 Mixed · 2The government will put in £33million through the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme, alongside funding from Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Gates Ventures, to help recruit enough people to take part in clinical trials. 1 2 Mixed · 2The money will support the Barbara Alliance, named after the late EastEnders actress Dame Barbara Windsor, which brings together government, industry, researchers, charities and people affected by dementia. 1 3

Mixed · 2Dementia will also be one of the first priorities of the new Health Data Research Service, which the Daily Mail and Evening Standard say is backed by up to £600million from the Government and Wellcome Trust and will bring NHS and research data together to help scientists identify suitable trial patients. 4 1 Centre · 1The Evening Standard reports it is understood that one project will see GSK use health data to explore a possible association between its shingles vaccine and a reduced risk of dementia. 4 Mixed · 2Burnham said: "I want Britain to be the country that makes the breakthrough and delivers the cure for dementia the world has been waiting for," and described dementia as "a devastatingly cruel disease" that society had too long accepted as something to be managed. 1 2

Mixed · 2The announcement comes less than a month after the death of Burnham's father, Roy, who had Alzheimer's disease; in a Daily Mail article Burnham wrote, "This is personal for me" and said that watching the illness showed that the care system "simply doesn't work" for those who give and need care. 1 2 Mixed · 2Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, speaking ahead of the Innovation Nation Summit, said the investment would "help us turn the tide on dementia" by speeding diagnosis and research and widening access to trials. 1 2 Mixed · 2Alzheimer's Research UK chief executive Hilary Evans-Newton, who chairs the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme, said more than 90% of people surveyed would like to take part in research, while the Alzheimer's Society called the move "a significant moment". 1 2

Centre · 1Dame Barbara's widower Scott Mitchell welcomed the announcement, and Alzheimer's Society chief executive Michelle Dyson called it "a significant moment for dementia research" and said the Prime Minister was right to reject the idea that dementia is an inevitable part of ageing. 4 Mixed · 2Burnham linked the research pledge to a planned National Care Service offering free personal care for older people and a state pension that rises every year; the Mirror reports that the government will look at scrapping the triple lock to fund it, while the Mail's account of the pension pledge says it would rise by inflation or 2.5 per cent, whichever is higher. 1 3 Centre · 1The Evening Standard, which covers the announcement without mentioning pensions or the triple lock, quotes Cooper saying dementia treatment would be one of the central priorities of the planned National Care Service. 4

Right · 1The Daily Mail presented the announcement as Burnham backing its Defeating Dementia campaign with the Alzheimer's Society, which it says aims to raise awareness, increase early diagnosis, boost research and improve care, and describes dementia as Britain's biggest killer, claiming 76,000 lives a year. 2