Dementia and Alzheimer’s Treatments

Lord Turnberg Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

We are very open to all sorts of creative ways of dealing with the matter, but it is important to say on the drugs that we are discussing that lecanemab and donanemab can only slow the progression of the disease by between four and six months. The challenge is not just whether it is available on the NHS but how helpful it is. We have a lot of progress to make, and that is why we are committed to ensuring that new treatments can quickly become available and that prevention is key.

[Lord Turnberg (Lab)]

My Lords, I have of course signed up for the dementia survey and I recommend it. One of the commonest forms of dementia is vascular dementia and we can do quite a lot to prevent it and treat it when it is caused by high blood pressure and diabetes. It requires quite a bit of surveying the population. How far have we got with that?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I am glad that I will be joining my noble friend in signing up as a volunteer. Certainly, the Lancet commission of last year said that some 45% of dementia cases are estimated to be preventable or delayable. That report is going to inform our actions as we look to the future. Perhaps it is helpful to clarify to your Lordships’ House—I am sure that many of us have experience of this—that the NHS health check for adults in England aged 45 to 74 is designed to do exactly as my noble friend says and identify early signs of various conditions which are contributory factors.