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The US National Institute on Aging is advancing efforts to develop a real-world Alzheimer’s disease database as part of its goal to improve, support and conduct more dementia research.
Last month, the agency, part of the National Institutes of Health, posted a grant notice for the six-year database project, setting its earliest start date as April 2024.
The NIH confirmed on Tuesday that plans are underway to fund Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias’ real-world data platform.
The National Institute on Aging intends to allocate $50 million annually, beginning in fiscal year 2024, to fund an award.
The nonprofit Alzheimer’s Association is among those planning to apply for the grant.
“The newly announced NIA funding for a large-scale Alzheimer’s disease research database is truly exciting and a very important step forward for our field, and the Alzheimer’s Association will be applying for that grant,” Maria C. Carrillo, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, said in an email on Tuesday.
“The Association is leading the way ALZ-NETwhich is a national network of physicians that collects data – including measures of cognition, function and safety – for patients treated with new FDA-approved treatments for Alzheimer’s,” Carrillo said. “It can be expanded of NIA funding the scope of ALZ-NET to the benefit of all stakeholders.”
He added that the Alzheimer’s Association believes that everyone should have access to treatments, regardless of their registration status.
The real-world database “aims to transform” the Alzheimer’s disease research enterprise “by serving as a central research access hub,” the The National Institute on Aging said last week in its announcement of a webinar about the project scheduled for April 19.
According to the announcement, the goal of the data registry is to provide a comprehensive and diverse database that can “improve the applicability and generalizability of findings,” be used as a tool for researchers and allow scientific questions to be answered more quickly. faster.
Last year, the National Institute on Aging convened an exploratory workshop to discuss real-world data gaps and opportunities to expand real-world data sources for dementia research.
Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disease that affects memory and thinking skillsis the most common type of dementia, says the NIH.
More than 6 million Americans are living with dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, and the number of people affected is expected to double in the next two decades, rising to 13 million by 2050.
