The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)
A Health Ministers summit of the Group of Eight was held in London today. The summit identified and agreed a new international approach to dementia research, to help break down barriers within and between companies, researchers and clinicians and secure a new level of co-operation needed to reach shared goals faster than nations acting alone. The following items were on the agenda for discussion:
Pre-summit briefing on the UK Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge
The UK presented to the meeting on the UK Prime Minister’s dementia challenge which includes dementia friendly communities, health and care and research.
Ministers’ and European Commission’s Prepared Statements
Statements were made by Canada, France, Germany and Italy. These were followed by statements from Japan, Russia, UK, United States and the EU.
Improving Life and Care for People Affected by Dementia and their Carers
The meeting held an exchange of views on the action that can be taken to provide better and more concrete measures for improving services and support for people with dementia and their carers.
Preventing and Delaying Dementia
The meeting held an exchange of views on the action that can be taken to stimulate greater investment and innovation in dementia prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.
Social Adaptation to Global Ageing and Dementia
The meeting held an exchange of views on the action necessary to adapt to ageing society and to reduce the impact of dementia.
As part of the agreement reached, countries have agreed to:
set an ambition to identify a cure or a disease-modifying therapy for dementia by 2025—backed by a commitment to together significantly increase the amount spent on dementia research and increase the number of people involved in clinical trials and studies on dementia;
a new global envoy for dementia innovation, following in the footsteps of global envoys on HIV and Aids and on climate change—the global envoy will bring together international expertise to stimulate innovation and co-ordinate international efforts to attract new sources of finance, including exploring the possibility of a new private and philanthropic fund to support global dementia innovation;
develop an international action plan for research—in particular to identify current gaps and how to fill them;
share information and data from dementia research studies across the G8 countries to work together and get the best return on investment in research; and
encourage open access to all publicly-funded dementia research to make data and results available for further research as quickly as possible
A copy of the declaration and communiqué has been placed in the Library. Copies are available to hon. Members from the Vote Office and to noble Lords from the Printed Paper Office.