Bill Gates invests 11 billion yen in research on Alzheimer's disease

Development of 'next generation condom' to keep pleasureYaDonation of 100 thousand chickens to rural areasMr. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft who is focusing on investing in research and charitable activities, and investment of 50 million dollars (about 5.7 billion yen) in a private fund newly for promoting research of Alzheimer's disease We announced a private investment of 100 million dollars (approx.

Why I'm Digging Deep Into Alzheimer's | Bill Gates
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Digging-Deep-Into-Alzheimers


Bill Gates' newest mission: Curing Alzheimer's - CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/13/health/bill-gates-announcement-alzheimers/index.html

Bill Gates Announces Investment in Alzheimer's Disease | Time
http://time.com/5021339/bill-gates-alzheimers-research-dementia/

Gates talks about why research on Alzheimer's disease is necessary from the movie below.

Investing in the Fight Against Alzheimer's - YouTube


Patients with Alzheimer's disease have increased in recent years and are at the momentum to rank among the top 10 most frequent causes of death in the United States, yet the cause is still unknown and no treatment has been established. Moreover, current treatment requires a considerable cost, compared with people who are not neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's patients will jump to more than five times the annual spending. Due to long-term treatment, it is also a problem to impose a large monetary burden on the elderly and their families.

(PDF file)According to Alzheimer's AssociationExpenditure on treatment of Alzheimer's disease and dementia in the United States in 2017 amounted to 259 billion dollars (29 trillion yen), and it is predicted that expenditure will increase steadily unless breakthrough occurs as it is. Especially the increase in the number of patients and expenditure in low income and middle income countries will be expected to increase.


Mr. Gates has been involved in eradicating HIV and polioBill & Melinda Gates FoundationWe invested through non-infectious diseases, but this is my first investment in private property.


Over the past year Gates investigated the study of Alzheimer 's disease and as there is already good research to prevent or avoid Alzheimer' s disease, Gates said that if research proceeds in the following five areas "I can change the way of Alzheimer's disease" I see.

1: Identify how Alzheimer's disease progresses
The difficult part of the study of Alzheimer's disease is that it is only after dissection after the patient's death that it is clear what happened in the brain. Therefore, it is not clearly understood why Alzheimer's disease occurs at the present time and how it progresses. First of all it is important to understand the cause and biology.

2: Develop a method to identify early Alzheimer's disease
Just as above, early diagnosis is extremely difficult as details of Alzheimer's disease are known only after the patient's death. If it becomes possible to diagnose Alzheimer at an early stage by a simple method such as a blood test, it is possible to tackle treatment more effectively.

3: Increase approach to treatment
Current Alzheimer's disease treatmentAmyloidWhenTau proteinWe are targeting, but in preparation for cases where there is no effect on these two, it is also necessary to advance research on another approach.

byJeremy Hiebert

4: Improve clinical trial efficiency
Whether innovation happens or not depends on the speed with which clinical trials are advanced, it is no exagestation. Depending on research, it may take several years to collect subjects, so it is important how to collect subjects efficiently and to proceed smoothly in clinical trials.

5: Use data efficiently
Each research collects huge amounts of data to proceed with research, but they reside in different places. Researchers can easily search for patterns by unifying information on research on Alzheimer's disease so that it can be used universally.

Gates thinks that if we can develop the above five fields, we can greatly reduce the influence of Alzheimer's disease. And as the first step in the initiative, Mr. Gates is a private fund seeking new therapeutic approachesDementia Discovery FundWe invested about 5.7 billion yen. Since major pharmaceutical companies are developing therapeutic methods targeting amyloid and tau protein, we decided to invest in the Dementia Discovery Fund to support startups that are not mainstream research.

Gates while that "there is a possibility that does not appear within the first results of 10 years of efforts, very high stick It is also considered" also, "Once that day comes, our Foundation is a poor country people We will look for enlarging methods so that they can access them. "