On December 15-16, experts convened in Lausanne to define an action plan to speed effective treatments and diagnostics for Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. This year’s two-day meeting under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), entitled “Global Action to Drive Innovation in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias: Connecting Research, Regulation and Access,” focused on the drug development process critical to both bringing a drug to market and delivering treatment to patients. It comes at an important time as the expected completion of several rigorous research programs offers new hope for innovative treatments that could be on the market in the coming years. Read the Press Release

‌‌ ‌

‌‌‌‌‌‌‌

‌

Agenda

The workshop aimed to provide input to ongoing international policy discussions on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. It offered an international forum for stakeholders to discuss and explore achievements and opportunities in research, development and market introduction of effective therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. This year’s workshop featured developments in dementia prevention and access pathways – specifically the evidence and tools needed to support payer evaluation of future therapies and diagnostics. Stakeholders discussed approaches to encourage more innovative research, shared governance, and new health economic models.

The challenge of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias presents a growing health burden, with high human and economic costs. With the issue having been brought to the forefront of the global policy debate by the G8 summit in London in December (2013), the subsequent legacy events, the work of the World Dementia Council, and the ‘First WHO Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia’ (2015), stakeholders need to sustain the momentum of the global dementia policy debate.

Through an exchange on good practices, representatives from governments, regulatory agencies, the research community, patient organisations, and insurers discussed progress and action in:

• The current therapeutic pipeline and advancement on the path to 2025, including patient focused research, prevention science, and outcomes-based approaches;

• Implementing innovative biomedical research tools in product development and regulatory models, including the scope for adaptive regulatory processes, enhanced clinical trial designs and a strengthened diagnostic environment;

• The current state of biomarker research and the required advances needed for regulatory use;

• Access to future therapies and diagnostics, including the evidence and tools needed by payers to ensure sustainability.

The workshop in Lausanne is a follow-up event to the OECD workshop on “Enhancing Translational Research and Clinical Development in Alzheimer's Disease and other Dementias: The Way Forward” (2014). It is organised under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The workshop was hosted by the Government of Switzerland and supported by the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI).

For further information, please contact: Hermann.Garden@oecd.org

 

Further reading 2014 Workshop OECD work on dementia  G8 dementia summit agreements UK Department of Health: The Dementia Challenge - Fighting back against dementia First WHO Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia