WASHINGTON – Recognizing the tremendous physical, emotional and financial cost of Alzheimer’s disease, Sen. Chuck Grassley is co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation that would offer a financial award for a successful cure.
“Alzheimer’s disease robs people of their memories, their minds, and finally their lives,” Grassley said. “It also has a profound effect on the family members who care for their loved ones. We can and must do better. Investing in research today leads to cures tomorrow. This legislation is meant to encourage competition, innovation and partnerships leading to a cure.”
Grassley co-sponsored the Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer’s Act or the EUREKA Act. The legislation authorizes the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to work with an advisory council of experts and other relevant federal departments and agencies to establish specific challenges, including desired outcomes, eligibility and evaluation metrics, and to ultimately award prizes to winning entrants. The bill authorizes $10 million annually for five years and authorizes the government to solicit and receive contributions from other sources including public and private entities and individuals. If the goals are not attained and prizes not awarded, the money goes back to the Treasury.
Grassley is asking two leading researchers who testified at a Finance Committee hearing this week to explain how they see the research leading to the prize competition proceeding. Grassley submitted his question to be answered for the hearing record.
In Iowa, there are currently 63,000 people with Alzheimer’s disease. Along with those 63,000 people are 135,000 family caregivers. More than five million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease today, costing more than $225 billion annually. About 70 percent — or nearly $160 billion — of this cost is shouldered by Medicare and Medicaid and, ultimately, the U.S. taxpayer. All of this money goes to care for people with Alzheimer’s disease. None of it is working toward a cure.
Funding for federal research toward a cure has increased, but experts say more money is needed to maximize the likelihood of achieving the national goal of preventing and treating Alzheimer’s by 2025. Prize competitions in other settings have proven successful, such as the X Prize for technological innovations that benefit society.
Grassley also is a cosponsor of the Health Outcomes, Planning, and Education (HOPE) for Alzheimer’s Act of 2015 (S. 857) that would require Medicare coverage for comprehensive Alzheimer’s disease care planning services. Newly released regulations from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services appear to largely cover the benefit called for in the HOPE Act.
A fact sheet on Alzheimer’s statistics for Iowa is available here.
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