The 2023 update to the nation’s roadmap of strategies and actions to address Alzheimer’s disease was released Wednesday, highlighting “landmark” progress made over the past year in understanding and treating the disease.
The update to the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease lays out how the US Department of Health and Human Services can accelerate research, expand treatments, improve care, support people living with dementia and their caregivers, and encourage action to reduce risk factors while addressing its six goals.
More than six million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias, a number expected to more than double by 2060. Forty-two percent of assisted living residents have received diagnoses of dementia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
Calling 2023 a “historic year” for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, the HHS update recounts how the Food and Drug Administration for the first time granted full approval to a drug, lecanemab (Leqembi), in July to slow the progression of the disease. The report noted that although drugs targeting amyloid are not a cure, they are “an important step” toward achieving the first goal of the plan to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by 2025.
Ensuring “equitable access” to new treatments will require changes to the healthcare system to ensure that the disease is diagnosed early and that those receiving diagnoses have access to specialists who can help them weigh the risks and benefits of treatments, according to the report.
“This makes the work under the National Plan even more critical, as the United States will need to strengthen healthcare infrastructure to ensure patients can navigate the safe and appropriate administration of this treatment, as well as research and public health infrastructure to make sure treatments can evolve and reach the correct people,” the report reads.
Also in July, the report noted, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model through its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The GUIDE model aims to improve quality of life for people living with dementia, reduce strain on unpaid caregivers and enable individuals to remain in their senior living communities or homes.
Among the report’s other highlights was the CDC’s National Summit on Dementia Risk Reduction in May, which brought together leaders in research, public health and policy to prevent the latest evidence and highlight gaps to reduce risk factors for dementia.
Recommitting to a national strategy
The report also notes the two bills prioiritizing Alzheimer’s research and support of scientists in the development of treatments for the disease that were reintroduced in Congress earlier this year.
The NAPA Reauthorization Act (HR 619) would reauthorize the National Alzheimer’s Project Act through 2035 to provide a roadmap for federal efforts in responding to Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. NAPA was signed into law in 2011 and established the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services. NAPA is set to expire in 2025 and requires annual updates to the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease.
The Alzheimer’s Accountability and Investment Act (HR 620), signed into law in 2015, requires National Institutes of Health scientists to submit an annual Alzheimer’s research budget proposal directly to Congress.
In August 2022, NIH researchers requested an additional $321 million in fiscal year 2024 for research into Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Alzheimer’s research funding has seen a seven-fold increase since passage of NAPA in 2011. Today, funding for research in Alzheimer’s and other dementias totals more than $3.5 billion.
