Recently, the NYTimes had an interesting piece on how the NIH is not prioritizing research and development for the elderly, clearly in sharp contrast to the large need for treatments in the upcoming future. At a time when the entire industry is wondering how to face the huge need for facing neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, this perspective from the NIH’s standpoint seems counter-intuitive.
Alignment of market stakeholders is key to viable improvements in the industry
To be able to achieve a strategic objective, the players in the entire ecosystem of the industry must be aligned in the same direction. Basically, patient demands, government encouragement and pharma manufacturer priorities must align with each other. When one of these does not, we end up with an obstacle to further development and improvement.
Recent studies in neuroscience (from industry organizations and academic researchers) have underlined two important points:
- The population of elderly people who are at high risk for neurological diseases is set to increase in the next 30-50 years, and
- Clinical trials and research studies are revealing more often how under-prepared we are with regards to treating neurological diseases. This eventually means that we need to accelerate our efforts to finding treatments for the diseases now, before the upcoming need arises.
Generally the NIH provides sufficient funding to geriatric research. However, the agency is now only providing about 11 percent of its $31 billion budget to studies benefiting health needs of the elderly. According to the NYT article, growth in the National Institute of Aging (NIA) has slowed down. Last year, only 17.5% of grant proposals from the NIA were accepted vs. 20% from the overall NIH.
Advocacy groups and researchers need to speak out and encourage funding to projects
Nancy E. Lundebjerg, CEO of the American Geriatrics Society says that aging-research approvals are expected to drop down to 13-14%, when the 2010 numbers are announced. This is not a good sign, as a drop in funding would only mean a cut in progress towards encouraging research to combat diseases targeting the elderly. Senate proposals are now underway to increase funding to research pertaining to the needs of the elderly. We will keep watching upcoming developments in this area or future reports.
