Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support research and drug development for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease; and what assessment they have made of Pfizer’s recent decision to end funding for research into both diseases.

The Government’s 2020 Dementia Challenge is galvanising dementia and neurodegeneration research including into Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The National Institute for Health Research, which is funded through the Department, is playing a central role in ensuring the success of this strategy. The Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 Implementation Plan, sets out how funding partners, including from Government, the life sciences industry and charities, will make this the best country in the world for dementia and neurodegeneration research. A copy of the Implementation Plan is attached. Researchers need targets to develop drugs and treatments. Whilst it is inevitable that companies such as Pfizer will disinvest from unpromising approaches, research to better understand disease processes will lead to identification of new targets for the development of drugs and other treatments.