Alzheon has announced that it has been invited to participate in the world’s first Global Dementia Legacy Event, hosted by the UK Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, MP, and the World Dementia Envoy, Dennis Gillings, CBE. Alzheon’s chief executive officer, Martin Tolar, will be among the political and industry leaders in attendance at the event along with leaders from the World Health Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, global Alzheimer’s associations and charities, and investors.
Expanding on the initiatives of the G8 Dementia Summit held in December 2013, this conference will propose ways to increase and apply investments in dementia. Invited leaders will convene at the prestigious Guildhall in the City of London on June 19, 2014, to discuss finance and social impact investment in dementia – a condition for which the vast majority of patients suffer from Alzheimer’s disease but also includes vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia and other causes of cognitive decline.
“Alzheimer’s disease is one of the largest medical, economic and social challenges of our time. In addition to addressing the human impact of this devastating disease on patients and their families, we must develop creative investment solutions to address the current impasse in Alzheimer’s research and drug development,” says Martin Tolar, founder, president and chief executive officer of Alzheon. “We commend the initiative of the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the UK Secretary of State for Health for continuing to build on the momentum of the G8 Dementia Summit to bring into action ways to increase investment in innovative approaches for addressing the unmet needs of patients with dementia around the world.”
The Global Dementia Legacy Event will explore ways that financial investment can support efforts to prevent, treat and support people to live well with dementia, including plans to establish a private and philanthropic Global Dementia Innovation Fund. At the conference, international experts and institutions will further define initiatives that build on the commitments agreed to by G8 leaders at the G8 Dementia Summit for a new international approach to dementia research, stimulating greater investment in innovation, securing greater collaboration, accelerating the development of new drugs for the prevention and treatment of dementia, and improving quality of life for people with dementia.
“Leaders from government, research and industry recognise the global crisis of dementia, affecting not only our patients but now also healthcare systems and economies across the world,” Tolar comments further. “At Alzheon, we are committed to rapidly advancing our novel drug candidate, ALZ-801, as one of the few innovative medicines with the potential to reach Alzheimer’s disease patients in the next few years. We are honoured to continue to play a role in global leadership forums and to offer Alzheon’s expertise to accelerate progress in our shared goal of bringing new treatments to patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.”
