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 Clinton called for a decade-long investment of $2 billion per year
for research, which her campaign called a fourfold increase over
last year's $586 million.
The proposal could help boost research into an illness that has not
only pressured the middle class families Clinton has made a
centerpiece of her campaign, but is expected to weigh substantially
on public spending as the U.S. population ages.
"We owe it to the millions of families who stay up at night worrying
about their loved ones afflicted by this terrible disease and facing
the hard reality of the long goodbye to make research investments
that will prevent, effectively treat and make a cure possible by
2025,” Clinton said in a statement.
Alzheimer’s is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that
eventually destroys the ability to carry out the simplest tasks.
More than 5 million Americans are estimated to have the disease,
which the National Institute on Aging said is the sixth leading
cause of death in the United States.
 On a conference call with reporters, the Clinton campaign pointed to
the expected growth in spending on Alzheimer's by government health
insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid.
A researcher on the call, Rudolph Tanzi of Harvard Medical School,
also detailed the recent progress in medical research that has
improved the chances for finding treatment or even a cure.
"Our single bottleneck has been funding," he said, calling his area
of research a "budget-constrained, not a knowledge-constrained
field."
The $2 billion also could include research on related dementias and
pathologies, Tanzi said.
Clinton's proposed level of funding "would be a tremendous boost for
our nationwide efforts to overcome Alzheimer's disease," said Robert
Egge, executive director of the advocacy organization Alzheimer's
Impact Movement.
Egge, who is also an executive with the Alzheimer's Association,
talked to Reuters after speaking on the Clinton campaign conference
call.
While neither the association nor AIM advised the campaign on this
proposal, Egge said, the association did provide the campaign with
an educational briefing on Alzheimer's disease.
Clinton's proposal also comes as researchers have made recent
progress in drug development for the disease.
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Recent trial data on solanezumab from Eli Lilly and Co and Biogen's
aducanumab have shown hints of genuine benefits.
Other companies aggressively working on Alzheimer's treatments
include Roche and Johnson & Johnson.
Clinton, the front-runner for her party's nomination for the
November 2016 presidential election, was to discuss her plan on
Tuesday in an appearance in Fairfield, Iowa.
A cure for Alzheimer's would also help caregivers, including the
so-called sandwich generation - people providing care for their
children and their parents at the same time.
About 15 percent of middle-aged people are helping financially
support both an aging parent and a child, according to the Pew
Research Center. Older parents are likelier to need caregiving of
some kind.
Clinton has often spoken on the campaign trail about meeting
supporters who are struggling to care for family members with
Alzheimer's.
For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, “Tales
from the Trail” (http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/).
(Reporting by Luciana Lopez and Bill Berkrot; Additional reporting
by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Bill Trott and Andrew Hay)
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reserved.]
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