Dementia cure 'within our grasp', says David Cameron

The goal of finding a treatment to cure or halt dementia by 2025 is "within our grasp", Prime Minister David Cameron has said, as he announced a doubling in UK funding for research into the disease.

Mr Cameron was addressing scientists, politicians and campaigners from around the world who have gathered in London for a dementia summit called by the UK as part of its year-long chairmanship of the G8.

With the World Health Organisation forecasting that numbers of dementia sufferers will almost double worldwide every two decades, Mr Cameron has said he wants UK Government investment in dementia research to double from £66 million in 2015 to £122 million in 2025 - with similar increases from the commercial and charitable sectors.

The London conference is expected to agree to a package of measures on international information-sharing and collaboration in research.

Mr Cameron said he hoped it would mark the point when "the global fightback really started, not just in finding a cure for dementia, but also in preventing it, delaying it and, crucially, helping those with dementia to live well and with dignity."

The PM said he wanted the UK's life sciences industries to play "a leading role" in the fight against dementia.

And he announced three new investments in life sciences, including £200 million from GlaxoSmithKline, £150 million from the Medical Research Council for clinical infrastructure for dementia and genomics and £3 million from Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB for its research centre in Slough.

Mr Cameron told the conference the world should be "just as resolute" in tackling dementia as it had been in the past in seeking treatments and cures for killer diseases like malaria, cancer and HIV/Aids.

"The challenge is huge and we are a long way from a cure, but there is hope," he said.

"We meet with the conviction that human ingenuity can overcome the most daunting of challenges and we meet with the determination that we will take the fight to dementia and improve and save millions of lives."

And he added: "The aim of trying to find a cure or disease-halting therapy by 2025 by a big collective boost to research funding is within our grasp."