WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) today introduced legislation that would create prize-based incentives to encourage more public-private collaboration in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia. The Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer’s (EUREKA) Act would complement other funding and research initiatives for Alzheimer’s while adding new potential for breakthroughs.

“Those who suffer from Alzheimer’s, along with their families, face daunting challenges every day. But they meet those challenges with remarkable grace and resolve that should inspire us in Congress every day to continue to work to find a cure,” Senator King said. “With limited budgets, we can do that by encouraging collaboration and innovation that could, one day, lead to that critical discovery. The EUREKA Act will support pioneering research initiatives and incentivize collaborative public-private partnerships, taking positive steps forward in the fight against this terrible disease.”

The EUREKA Act would authorize the Director of the National Institutes of Health to work with other federal agencies to establish prize challenges informed by the research milestones contained in the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease. Challenges could focus in a number of areas including:

• Identification and validation of Alzheimer’s biomarkers;
• Development of non-invasive and cost-effective early detection and diagnostic tools;
• Repurposing of existing drugs to address Alzheimer’s disease; and
• Development of new tools and approaches to care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease.

An advisory council that would include experts in organizing and managing such challenges as well as patient advocates and industry representatives will be constituted to determine the competitions, while a separate judging panel will evaluate submissions and make recommendations for awards to the Director of NIH.

Prize challenges enable government sponsors to pay only when a prize team achieves specified goals or milestones. While funds will be authorized and reserved for awards, prizes will only be granted when teams achieve clearly defined objectives, making the EUREKA Act a cost-effective tool to support the pursuit of the 2025 goal. Additionally, the EUREKA Act would permit the receipt of donations from the private sector and from individuals to fund the competition and build the award fund.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has set a goal of curing Alzheimer’s by 2025. Today, Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America and there remains no cure. According to a report released earlier this year, caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is estimated to cost the United States $226 billion in 2015, with one in five Medicare dollars spent on an Alzheimer’s victim. Unless a cure is found, treatment costs are expected to grow to an estimated $1.1 trillion by 2050. 

The legislation is supported by the XPRIZE Foundation, Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, Alzheimer's Association, Eli Lilly and Company, and BrightFocus Foundation.

“This legislation, which will reward researchers who meet certain milestones in Alzheimer’s disease drug development with cash prizes, will help spur innovation and accelerate discovery of a cure or disease modifying treatment,” said Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., President and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. “We, as a nation, still must work to make Alzheimer’s disease research a national priority and make it’s funding on par with other major disease states.”

“An advance in Alzheimer’s research has the potential both to save millions of lives and billions of dollars for the nation’s public health programs,” said Robert Egge, Executive Vice President of Alzheimer’s Association. “With the cooperation of the medical and research communities, we are at a tipping point. We have the ideas, the technology and the will, but we need a focused commitment from the federal government, including robust support for Alzheimer’s research at the National Institutes of Health.”

“This is a time of great and deserved hope in dementia as Congress and the National Institutes of Health have begun to address chronic underfunding of research,” said Ian Kremer, Executive Director of Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer's Disease. “The Act’s focus on pay for success highlights that we need not only more research but better research, research that changes the lives of people living with dementia today and that reduces or eliminates the risk of people having to live with dementia in the future.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain’s nerve cells, causing loss of memory while damaging cognitive, language and social capabilities. It is the most common cause of dementia, and nearly one in every three seniors who dies each year suffers from Alzheimer’s or another dementia.  In Maine, there are currently 26,000 people over the age of 65 living with Alzheimer’s – a number that is projected to increase to 35,000 in just ten years. 

In March, Senator King cosponsored the Health Outcomes, Planning, and Education (HOPE) for Alzheimer’s Act of 2015, a bill that amends Medicare to cover comprehensive Alzheimer’s disease care planning services.

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