News
Ministers back £48m dementia research partnership with drug companies
The Government has announced a £48 million public-private partnership to accelerate dementia research, with ministers saying the programme will help speed up clinical trials and support the development of new treatments for one of the biggest challenges facing health and social care. The initiative combines £33m of
government funding through the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme with further investment from Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Gates Ventures. The funding will support the BARBARA
Alliance, a UK-wide partnership spanning government, industry, academia, charities and people living with dementia, and the creation of a co-ordinated platform linking UK health data, research and clinical trial capabilities, making it easier for researchers to identify participants and for people across the country to take part in studies, the government said. It added the programme will aim to tackle
one of the biggest barriers facing dementia research by recruiting more people into clinical trials. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “For
too long, we have accepted dementia as something to be managed later in life, rather than a disease we can defeat. He added he has “real hope that we can come together and do exactly that,” he added.
and delivers the cure for dementia the world has been waiting for”. He added that the investment would sit alongside plans for a National Care Service and wider social care reform. The Government is also encouraging the
National priority Mr Burnham also announced that dementia will be one of the first priorities for the new Health Data Research Service (HDRS), a £600m government and Wellcome Trust initiative aimed at bringing NHS and research data together to help the identification of suitable patients and support the development of new medicines. Nearly one million people are currently
living with dementia in the UK and around one in two people will be affected by the condition during their lifetime, either through receiving a diagnosis, providing care or both. Meanwhile, the disease is estimated to cost
the UK more than £42 billion a year, with most of that burden falling on social care and unpaid carers. Mr Burnham said he wanted Britain “to be the country that makes the breakthrough
public to participate in dementia studies through the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Join Dementia Research service, which is open to adults with or without a dementia diagnosis. It also follows the launch of UKRI’s £80m
Dementia Challenge last week, which aims to test nine innovative technologies in the NHS, including faster MRI brain scans and remote cognitive assessments, to speed up diagnosis and improve patient outcomes. The programme aims to help ensure 92 per cent of people receive a diagnosis within 18 weeks of referral, up from around 60 per cent today, by rapidly scaling innovations that prove they work in real-world settings.
Industry backing highlights trial recruitment focus Stakeholders involved in the new programme said improving access to research and clinical trials will be key to accelerating dementia treatment development. Industry partners highlighted the benefit of joined-up data, AI and faster recruitment.
November 2026
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