Cure Alzheimer's Fund: Targeting Breakthrough Research

Good, but never enough until Alzheimer’s is gone!

Over the last several days two important announcements pertaining to Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases have been made:

1. The White House announced an ambitious new initiative call “BRAIN” (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) to be funded with $100 million (pending approval by Congress) starting in 2014.  The project will be a multi-agency government program designed, essentially, as the New York Times article points out, to “show how millions of brain cells interact”.

A huge thank you to our supporters, researchers and Board of Directors as we celebrate a very successful 2010 at Cure Alzheimer's Fund.

Taking a unique venture capital approach to philanthropy, we support novel Alzheimer’s research that is aggressive, results-oriented, and ‘red-tape’-free. Bucking the recent downturn in charitable donations, we raised a record $3.8 million in 2010 through individuals and federal and foundation grants, plowing all of it directly into research. CAF has raised $18.9 million since its inception at a time when the federal government budget for Alzheimer’s research and education has stagnated.

“Three families committed to wiping out Alzheimer’s decided five years ago that the ‘business-as-usual” model for Alzheimer’s research needed to be accelerated and founded Cure Alzheimer’s Fund,” said Tim Armour, President and CEO of the Fund. “Our network of supporters has grown because the only return the founders expect is a cure and we have made great strides to bring us closer to reaching that goal.”

This year alone CAF-supported research has made significant breakthroughs in better understanding the nature of Alzheimer’s, a key to finding a cure and more effective treatments.

Again, many thanks to all who are helping fund more research so we can get to a cure as quickly as possible. Here's to great progress for 2011.

Read the press release on 2010 success>

From Cure Alzheimer's Fund President & CEO, Tim Armour:

I’ve been talking about the “cost of Alzheimer’s” for years, but we just released our new numbers and the statistics are shocking.

Over the next 10 years, we will spend $2 trillion on Alzheimer’s care.

Alzheimer’s costs the federal government over $100 billion per year, but as the baby boomer generation ages, the costs of health care are going to increase at an even faster pace. We can’t sustain this, Alzheimer’s alone will single-handedly bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid if we don’t act.

That’s why we must find a cure for Alzheimer’s now. We need the federal government to make a serious investment in research so our loved ones -- and our nation’s health care system -- will not suffer the consequences.

That is why I’m asking each and every one of you to sign our petition telling Congress to cure Alzheimer’s now.

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5850/t/5223/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=755

These numbers are truly alarming, reminding us that we must cure Alzheimer's now not only to address the obvious looming economic disaster, but also to bring real hope and relief to those already suffering from the disease. That’s why we founded the Cure Alzheimer's Fund. We have a roadmap to a cure -- we are the only ones -- we just need to fund it.

With a federal investment of $5 billion a year for the next decade, our country can capitalize on current research, including Cure Alzheimer’s Fund’s successful efforts to identify and characterize all the genes related to Alzheimer’s, bringing us that much closer to curing this devastating disease -- that’s a lot less than the $2 trillion price of inaction.

Another American gets Alzheimer’s every 70 seconds, yet our government spends very little on research. We need a long-term investment or our health care system -- and the American people -- will continue to suffer.

Lend your voice to our cause and help us cure Alzheimer’s once and for all.