Collins continues bipartisan battle against Alzheimer’s disease

U.S. Senate Aging Committee Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) continues a bipartisan collaboration with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on fighting Alzheimer’s disease and has requested President Donald Trump bolster related research funding in his fiscal year 2019 budget proposal.

Alzheimer’s disease “is the only one of our nation’s deadliest diseases without an effective means of prevention, treatment, or cure. If nothing is done to change the trajectory of Alzheimer’s, the number of Americans afflicted with the disease is expected to more than triple by 2050,” according to the senators’ Jan. 31 letter, signed by 13 other members including U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Hoeven (R-ND), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Todd Young (R-IN).

Alzheimer’s is also one of the most expensive diseases in the United States, which spends over $259 billion annually on related patient care, according to the letter. Projected national costs could reach $1.1 trillion by 2050, the senators wrote.

While “critical achievements” in federal funding have been made that include Alzheimer’s research funds — such as a $428 million increase under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 and targeted monies under the 21st Century Cures Act — “we need to do more,” the senators wrote. “Alzheimer’s research funding remains disproportionately low compared to its human and economic toll.”

Collins, founder and co-chair of the Senate Alzheimer’s Task Force, helped author the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) in 2011, which didn’t authorize more money, but established a national plan and advisory council to coordinate research and services across federal agencies, and to accelerate the development of prevention and effective treatments for the disease by 2025, among other provisions. The chairman of the advisory council had determined that $2 billion a year was needed for Alzheimer’s research to reach the 2025 goal, according to the letter, and prompted the similar request from Collins and Klobuchar for Trump’s FY2019 budget proposal.

“Federal funding for Alzheimer’s research is a wise investment,” the senators wrote. “We remain committed to finding a way to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s by 2025, and we look forward to working with you to meet that goal.”

Collins and Klobuchar on Feb. 6, 2017 reintroduced the Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Act, S. 311, a bill that would expand family and caregiver training and support services. Also, on that same day last year, the pair introduced Senate Resolution 49, a bipartisan measure that would cite effective Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention by 2025 as “an urgent national priority.”