EUREKA Act boosts public-private collaboration for Alzheimer’s research

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) threw his support behind The Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer’s (EUREKA) Act, a bill to help create prized-based incentives to encourage more public-private collaboration, on Thursday.

“I am pleased to support the bipartisan EUREKA Act, which will encourage more public-private collaboration to combat Alzheimer’s disease,” Tillis said in announcing that he would co-sponsor the bill. “We have seen how public-private partnerships can result in scientific breakthroughs with other diseases, and the EUREKA Act can help in the advancement of detection tools and improvement of care for the millions of Americans who have Alzheimer’s disease.”

Introduced by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the EUREKA Act would authorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to work with other federal agencies to establish prize challenges informed by the research milestones contained in the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease.

An advisory council that would include experts in organizing and managing such challenges as well as patient advocates and industry representatives will be constituted to determine the competitions, while a separate judging panel will evaluate submissions and make recommendations for awards to the NIH director.