Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support research into (1) Parkinson’s dementia, and (2) dementia with Lewy bodies.

At the G8 dementia summit in December 2013, the G8 countries agreed to work together to tackle and defeat dementia. The declaration, built on the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge, announced the G8’s ambition to identify a cure or a disease-modifying therapy by 2025 and to increase collectively and significantly the amount of funding for dementia research.

Investment in dementia research by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has increased from £12.6 million in 2009-10 to £26.8 million in 2013-14.

The NIHR Newcastle Dementia Biomedical Research Unit focuses on Lewy body dementia, including Parkinson’s disease patients who later develop dementia. This unit is receiving £4.5 million NIHR funding over the period 2012-17. Other current NIHR investment in this specific disease area includes a £2.1 million multicentre study of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor donepezil in early dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease, and a £1.9 million programme grant for research on improving the diagnosis and management of Lewy body dementia in the National Health Service.

Investment in dementia research by the Medical Research Council (MRC) has increased from £14.8 million in 2009-10 to £25.3 million in 2012-13 (the latest available figure).

In July 2014, the MRC launched the UK Dementias Research Platform (UKDP), a multi-million pound public-private partnership, developed and led by MRC to accelerate progress in, and open up, dementias research. The UKDP’s aims are early detection, improved treatment and ultimately, prevention, of dementias. The MRC is providing £12 million funding for UKDP for an initial period of five years. This is supplemented by a further £4 million from six partner companies, a mixture of cash contributions and valuable company resources such as research tools, analytical capabilities and expertise.

The UKDP is creating the world’s largest population for study for dementias research, bringing together two million participants aged 50 and over, from 22 existing study groups within the United Kingdom. Included are people from the general population, people known to be at-risk of developing dementia, and people diagnosed with early-stage dementia. Plans are for the UKDP to be used for all types of neurodegenerative diseases research and this would include Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

Within the MRC dementias portfolio, spend on projects with a specific focus on Lewy body dementia was £1.7 million in 2012-13.