The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC), a first-of-its-kind global effort to accelerate the discovery, testing and delivery of precision interventions for Alzheimer’s, has been launched.

 

Through public-private partnership, the DAC will help governments manage their response to this disease and reduce the burden for families worldwide. 

 

Although Covid-19 will be the priority for health systems around the world this year, diseases like dementia are projected to increase from affecting 50 million families today to 150 million families and half a billion individuals by 2050.

 

DAC has established a comprehensive approach to collecting diverse population data, conducting clinical trials, and supporting health system preparedness across middle- and low-resource countries. 

 

It aims to create a global innovation system to speed and scale up the global response, lower costs and bring new treatments to market.

 

Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, said: “I am pleased that the World Economic Forum continues to be a catalyst for initiatives of public-private partnerships in the field of Health and Healthcare — first the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), then The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and now the Davos Alzheimer Collaborative (DAC). Alzheimer’s is a disease that has such an impact on the lives and livelihood of hundreds of millions of people. It deserves much more attention, but also coalitions to address the issue.”

 

“The world is confronting an emerging pandemic of Alzheimer's and other chronic diseases of aging that threatens to be more devastating, longer lasting and more costly than Covid-19,” said George Vradenburg, Convener, Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi) and the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, and Chairman and Co-Founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. “DAC is premised on the proposition that individual governments, as well as intergovernmental organisations, the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, leading researchers, and patient advocates, must come together to drive progress forward.”

 

“Dementia is having a cruel impact on families, societies and nations around the world,” said Margaret Chan, former Director General of the World Health Organisation and current Dean of the Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, People’s Republic of China. “It is time that national leaders take action to create a global mechanism - like CEPI and COVAX - to respond to this world-wide dementia pandemic. The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative is that global mechanism bringing together national governments, industry leaders, top scientists, leading NGO’s and patient-led organisations, including, importantly, from low- and middle-income countries. The time to act is now.”

 

“We are pleased to work with the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative on this important effort,” said Niranjan Bose, Managing Director of Health & Life Sciences at Gates Ventures. “For those suffering with Alzheimer’s, there is currently no way to stop or slow the progression. Data sharing initiatives like this will be key to accelerating progress and ending the affliction associated with this terrible disease.”

 

This public-private partnership answers the call to action that came from the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Annual Meeting in Davos and is one part of the progress made in 2020.

 

This new global initiative has prioritised three main areas. In partnership with the International HundredK+ Cohorts Consortium, DAC aims to build a global cohort with high-quality, detailed data on a well-characterised, diverse population. To date, this effort has engaged 30 cohorts representing 21 million patients worldwide.

 

Regarding clinical trials, DAC is striving to build a global clinical trial network with participants from Europe, Singapore, the People’s Republic of China, Australia, Colombia, Japan and South Korea. Lastly, DAC aims to help facilitate the implementation of global commitments and strategies to ensure health system preparedness for Alzheimer’s.

 

DAC is following the models of GAVI and CEPI to bring progress to the most challenging global public health issues. DAC continues to gather support and financial commitments, and top thought leaders in science, finance and healthcare around the globe are providing guidance. -- Tradearabia News Service