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THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE OF ALZHEIMER’S:

THE G–8 DEMENTIA SUMMIT AND BEYOND

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

Serial No. 113–119

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

TREY RADEL, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

LUKE MESSER, Indiana 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mr. George Vradenburg, chairman and founder, USAgainstAlzheimer’s ........... 5

Mr. Matthew Baumgart, senior director of public policy, Alzheimer’s Association ........................................................................................................................ 16

Andrea Pfeifer, Ph.D., chief executive officer, AC Immune (appearing via 

videoconference) ................................................................................................... 24

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Mr. George Vradenburg: Prepared statement ....................................................... 8

Mr. Matthew Baumgart: Prepared statement ....................................................... 18

Andrea Pfeifer, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ........................................................... 27

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 40

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 41

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global 

Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations: Statement 

submitted for the record by the Honorable Maxine Waters, a Representative 

in Congress from the State of California ........................................................... 42

(1)

THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE OF ALZHEIMER’S: 

THE G–8 DEMENTIA SUMMIT AND BEYOND 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2013

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 a.m., in room 

2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. We now move to a hearing, pursuant to notice, on the 

Global Challenge of Alzheimer’s: The G–8 Dementia Summit and 

Beyond. And I recognize myself and then I will go to Dr. Bera. 

Good morning. Next month, the United Kingdom will host a 

meeting of health ministers from G–8 member countries in London 

to discuss strategies to address the global challenge of Alzheimer’s 

and other forms of dementia. Currently, more than 35 million people worldwide live with some form of dementia. By 2050, this population is projected to triple, in effect, to more than 115 million people. The total cost of dementia, treatment and care is estimated to 

be somewhere on the order of $604 billion, with about 70 percent 

of those costs now occurring in Western Europe and North America. As populations age across the globe, today’s crisis may become 

tomorrow’s, and will likely become, unless action is taken and cures 

are found, tomorrow’s catastrophe. 

Since our subcommittee’s June 2011 hearing on this very issue, 

attention has increasingly turned to dealing with this situation in 

which people live with dementia, which is more, frankly, than the 

people living with HIV/AIDS which is about 33 million. Today’s 

hearing is being held in advance of the G–8 Dementia Summit to 

discuss the policy of the U.S. Government representatives should 

offer at this conference through recommendations from organizations involved in Alzheimer’s and dementia research and treatment. 

Many of us have family members, friends, and acquaintances—

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know someone who suffers from 

Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia. We know the pain of seeing 

a loved one lose their grip on present circumstances and experience 

relationships built over decades radically changed forever. Spouses, 

parents, siblings and other relatives become unable to care for 

themselves and we are faced with the heartwrenching decision on 

how best to ensure their care. Sometimes symptoms are too subtle 

2

to recognize immediately. Sometimes they manifest themselves as 

sudden changes in personality. However they occur and for whatever reason they occur, these cognitive changes disrupt families 

and change lives permanently for both the people suffering from 

these conditions and those who care for them. 

The World Health Organization estimates that more than half of 

global dementia cases are in low and middle income countries 

where cases are projected to grow. The gross national income per 

capita in these countries is sometimes less than $1,000. Countries 

across Africa, Asia, and Latin America are expected to see the 

rapid growth in dementia cases over the next several decades. In 

2010, roughly 53 percent of dementia cases were in low and middle 

income countries. By 2050, WHO expects 70 percent of all dementia 

cases to be found in such nations. 

In high income countries, family efforts to care for those affected 

by dementia are supported by the administration of medicines and 

other professional care services that can be obtained through private insurance or other government-funded programs. In the majority of low and middle income countries, however, low awareness 

of dementia and its impact are reflected in a lack of comprehensive 

government policies and public resources aimed at addressing these 

conditions. As a direct result, care for people living with dementia 

in these regions is predominately the responsibility of their families. 

Support for people with dementia is funded differently across the 

world. In high income countries, roughly 40 percent of associated 

costs are borne by the family through informal care, whereas, in 

low and middle income countries nearly 60 percent of these costs 

are covered through informal care. Health insurance or other social 

safety net schemes are typically used in high income countries to 

alleviate some of the financial burden associated with care for 

loved ones with dementia. These supports are not widely available 

or affordable in most low and middle income countries, and the formal social care sectors in these areas are ill equipped. As a result, 

families in these countries are often required to assume not only 

the cost of care but also the delivery of that care. 

WHO estimates that while 30 percent of people with dementia 

live in assisted living facilities or nursing homes in high income 

countries, only 11 percent do so in low and middle income countries. Our Government has worked to enable people in low and 

middle income countries to enjoy the kind of prosperity those of us 

in the developed world experience. However, trends indicate that as 

populations age, they become increasingly prosperous. With immature health systems, however, and inadequate health resources, illnesses that primarily afflict the elderly, such as dementia, risk derailing economic growth as the productive population attempts to 

care for their older loved ones. Estimates indicate that the proportion of people older than 60 years who will require care will dramatically increase by the year 2050. 

We do have an aging planet. The challenge that will face the 

health ministers gathered in London next month is to find a way 

to continue to enable increased prosperity in low and middle income countries while taking into account the drain on that prosperity from care for an aging population. Foreign aid to developing 

3

countries for health care purposes will change and we need to anticipate that change now before it becomes an overwhelming situation. In the United States and the rest of the developed world, we 

also must face our own challenges. 

As one of our witnesses, Professor Andrea Pfeifer, will testify, the 

four pillars of the G–8 Dementia Summit are, 1) building publicprivate cooperation networks; 2) business coordination to prevent 

dementia; 3) investment in solutions and treatments; and 4) laying 

the groundwork for the transition to an aging society without dementia. This is indeed a tall order, and cooperation internationally 

between developed and developing countries, public-private partnerships, and an effective transition to a dementia-free world will 

be difficult, but not impossible. 

We invited experts from the Department of Health and Human 

Services to attend, who will attend the G–8 summit, to testify at 

today’s hearing, but they have declined, at least for now. We hope 

to have them appear in a post-Summit hearing to tell us what that 

gathering achieved and what the U.S. Government role in addressing this global challenge, from their perspective, will be. Meanwhile, we have with us the chief executive officer of one of the 

world’s leading pharmaceutical companies working on Alzheimer’s 

treatment research and two advocates for a more effective response 

to the challenge of dementia, not only in the United States, but 

worldwide as well. 

The struggle to meet the challenge of HIV/AIDS has been tremendous, and in fact this morning I met with Mark Dybul, the executive director of the Global Fund. The enormous work that is 

being done through PEPFAR is a great credit to a concerted world 

effort to mitigate and hopefully eradicate that horrible disease. But 

we need to, now, in addition to continuing that fight, look at some 

of these other huge pandemics that we face as global citizens, and 

certainly dementias, and Alzheimer’s is chief among them. 

I would like to now yield to Dr. Bera. 

Dr. BERA. Thank you Chairman Smith and thank you for—this 

is an incredibly timely hearing in advance of the G–8 gathering. 

I look at Alzheimer’s disease from the perspective of being a physician and how it impacts not just the patient but the families and 

the entire community. And just from personal experience, having 

cared for both patients as well as family members who are struggling to care for aging parents and so forth, this is an incredibly 

important issue for us to deal with, particularly when you look at 

the numbers. I think, if I am not mistaken, over 5 million Americans currently suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, and as the baby 

boomer generation and our population ages it is going to impact 

America. 

The benefit we have though is we have resources and infrastructure to help care and help support those families as they are caring 

for their loved ones. But as we look at the developing world, as the 

chairman pointed out, they don’t have those resources, so much 

more of the burden falls onto us as the United States and the developed world to come up with mechanisms and resources to help 

the developing world. 

Within our country, within my home institution of the University 

of California, Davis, the UC system and our academic research cenVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:33 Mar 31, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\131121\85645 SHIRL
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ters, we have to develop an ability to enable the developing countries to better sort through what are treatable causes of dementia 

versus untreatable causes of dementia. We also have to invest in 

that research that allows our pharmaceutical companies to come up 

with the mechanisms and the treatments to, if not cure Alzheimer’s 

at least to help mitigate and slow down the devastating impact of 

what is right now an irreversible form of dementia. 

I was talking to a constituent of mine who is trying to care for 

her aging parents right now, and again, with the resources we have 

in the United States she is struggling as her parents get older and 

older and their dementia gets worse. I can only imagine if you were 

in a country that didn’t have those resources and didn’t have those 

support structures just how difficult it would be. 

Again, I applaud the chairman for hosting and holding this hearing. I look forward to hearing what the witnesses have to say. And 

again I would just encourage all of us here in Congress to think 

about how we make those investments in research, how we make 

those investments and enable us to come up with better diagnostic 

tools and also better therapies and treatment to slow down dementia as well as hopefully one day come up with a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. So again, I am looking forward to the testimony. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Dr. Bera. 

Vice Chairman Randy Weber? 

Mr. WEBER. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I too appreciate you holding the hearing, and I am going to be very short-winded. Looking 

forward to the witnesses’ testimony. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you Mr. Weber. 

I would like to now welcome our witnesses, beginning first with, 

Dr. Andrea Pfeifer is co-founder of AC Immune, in 2003, where she 

has been CEO since it was founded. She is a member of the WEF 

Global Agenda Council of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the 

CEOi Initiative on Alzheimer’s disease. As the former head of Nestle’s global research in Switzerland where Professor Pfeifer managed a group of more than 600 people, she brings more than 25 

years of senior management experience including broad R&D, business, and international exposure. Dr. Pfeiffer is an international 

expert in biotechnology and a professor in Switzerland as I mentioned. 

Our second witness will be Mr. George Vradenburg who is chairman and co-founder of USAgainstAlzheimer’s, an education and advocacy campaign committed to mobilize America to stop Alzheimer’s, and convener of the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s. 

He also helps direct Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer’s Disease, a coalition of Alzheimer’s serving organization. He has been named by 

the Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve on the National Alzheimer’s Advisory Council to advise on the first of its 

kind National Alzheimer’s Strategic Plan which is mandated from 

legislation we passed in the last Congress. 

Prior to December 2003, Mr. Vradenburg held several senior executive positions in large media companies, and I thank him, because we have met many times that he has been a source of a great 

deal of input to this subcommittee on what we ought to be doing, 

and I do greatly appreciate that. 

5

We will then hear from Mr. Matthew Baumgart. He is the senior 

director of public policy for the Alzheimer’s Association. His portfolio includes overseeing state government affairs, the public health 

project for the Centers for Disease Control, and the public policy 

department. Prior to joining the Alzheimer’s Association, Mr. 

Baumgart worked for nearly 18 years in the United States Senate. 

He was legislative director for Senator Barbara Boxer where he supervised the legislative staff, managed all the senator’s legislative 

activities and was her chief legislative strategist. Prior to working 

for Senator Boxer, Mr. Baumgart worked for over 10 years with 

then-Senator Joe Biden. 

So if we could start with Mr. Vradenburg. 

STATEMENT OF MR. GEORGE VRADENBURG, CHAIRMAN AND 

FOUNDER, USAGAINSTALZHEIMER’S 

Mr. VRADENBURG. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Smith, Mr. Bera and Mr. Weber, I am here today as the convener of the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s. It is a coalition 

of a number of companies across a number of sectors from pharmaceuticals to medical food to diagnostic companies to financial service companies and home health care companies. 

Mr. Chairman, you commented about having met frequently. 

Much has happened in the last 21⁄2 years since this committee had 

another hearing on the same subject. We have established a national plan in this country. We have established the rather bold 

goal of trying to stop this disease by 2025. The World Health Organization has judged Alzheimer’s and dementia as a public health 

priority. OECD has a robust innovation work plan. Professor Peter 

Piot who headed the U.N. effort on HIV/AIDS has called now for 

a global plan against Alzheimer’s and dementia, viewing it as a 

challenge to the 21st century much like HIV/AIDS was at the end 

of the 20th century. And as you mentioned, next month at the invitation of Prime Minister David Cameron, representatives from G–

8 nations are gathering in London for the first ever G–8 Global Dementia Summit. 

More than a dozen years ago, the G–8 met in Okinawa to commit 

to a global effort to fight HIV/AIDS. It was a turning point in the 

world’s attention to that disease. And the United States during the 

course of the Bush administration stepped up the Global Fund and 

the PEPFAR, as you mentioned, and it was proven to be extraordinarily successful even as we still have more to do. A similar G–

8 commitment to address Alzheimer’s and dementia would make 

this a pivotal moment in the history of this disease as historians 

write of the battle against this disease in the 21st century. 

I have urged the U.S. delegation to use the G–8 summit to press 

for the development of a global plan to stop Alzheimer’s, and I am 

urging today that the U.S. delegation begin to lay the foundation 

for a global fund to finance that effort by calling on nations to contribute 1 percent of their national costs of caring for those with the 

disease to a global fund to stop it. So for the United States, if costs 

are roughly $200 billion a year, a 1-percent contribution would represent $2 billion a year. 

A global plan must be actionable, goal oriented, and updated regularly. It has got to be designed, it seems to me, to reinforce naVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:33 Mar 31, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\131121\85645 SHIRL
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tional plans and strategies. It has got to be appropriately financed. 

And it has to enjoy the strong and sustained backing of government leaders, not just from the G–8 nations, but from the entire 

range of low, middle income, and high income countries because 

the footprint of this disease is, as you have emphasized, Mr. Chairman, much broader than the eight nations that are going to be represented in London. So London should be regarded with the G–8 

as a first step. 

It seems to me that a plan should focus on critical and emerging 

areas in need of global coordination, new financing to finance Alzheimer’s research, drug development and care, for example, 

through a global fund, but not limited to a global fund. Multi-national high-performance infrastructures for Alzheimer’s longitudinal studies and clinical trials to identify the means of both pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions to prevent this 

disease are other key elements. 

A third element of this plan has to address the critical issues of 

basic and regulatory science such as the scientific development and 

regulatory qualification of predictive AD biomarkers. The fourth 

element of this plan, it seems to me, has to deal with the new age 

of technology, and we need to develop globally interoperative, technology-driven techniques to thoroughly and expeditiously exploit 

the voluminous amounts of big data that are being generated by 

genomic science and electronic health records. This needs to be 

turned to discovering the mechanisms of action of this disease, 

those at risk for the disease and cures for those diseased. And of 

course it has to deal with care innovations. 

As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, every country has dealt with 

care of those with Alzheimer’s in quite different ways. New technology-assisted mechanisms of monitoring care management, of 

care coordination, and potentially care quality controls, seem to me 

to permit us now to exchange information with the rest of the 

world in terms of the innovations that are needed to assure quality 

care across care settings in stages of the disease, and to make sure 

they are efficiently delivered. If we commit to these efforts, the potential value to the public is huge. 

A recent report by RTI International found that if we make certain reforms in our infrastructure, we can reduce the cost and risk 

of developing Alzheimer’s therapy by over half, speed up by nearly 

18 months the time to get a therapy to patients, reduce by millions 

the number of dementia years of Alzheimer’s, and save hundreds 

of billions of dollars in public cost. This is just in the United States. 

Excuse me, I am getting over a cold as you can hear, and so I 

apologize if my voice breaks like a 14-year-old boy. 

These findings underscore what is possible when the appropriate 

level of resources, focus, and planning are directed at this problem. 

As JFK, whose assassination we recognize tomorrow, emphasized 

when he made his moonshot speech, we do not set goals and regard 

them as easy. We set goals that are hard and we do that because 

it will mobilize our resources, our intellect, and our focus to solve 

the problem in front of us. That is what we need now. Thus, I am 

urging the U.S. and other nations to develop a global action plan 

along these lines starting at the G–8 summit. 

7

The global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s will be convening a 

meeting on December 12 in London following the December 11 

global Summit with the representatives of the key G–8 nations, as 

well as with industry and scientific leaders, in order to turn the political commitments that are made at the G–8 summit into action 

plans in 2014. 

I am also urging the U.S. to be not only more actively 

participatory in these international efforts, but to lead these international efforts. As you pointed out, Mr. Chairman, the United 

States ended up leading the effort against the HIV/AIDS. We didn’t 

just participate and allow others to lead. We took the leadership 

against the global pandemic, and in fact much of the progress that 

has been made has clearly been a global effort, but much of the 

progress has been made because of the leadership of the United 

States. 

So the United States can lead not just at the G–8 summit. There 

are some workshops that are contemplated in 2014 to follow up on 

the G–8 summit, but there is also continuing work at the OECD 

in which the United States has not been an active and engaged 

participant. And we need to ensure that while the Prime Minister 

of England is the President of the G–8s for this year, his presidency ends at the end of the year and we need leadership that will 

continue this effort at a global level after December 31. And so the 

United States is, of course, the natural leader in these areas and 

should take the lead as we move forward after the end of this year. 

And I would encourage you, Mr. Chairman. You have been active 

and you have focused on this important issue, but international 

parliamentarians are eager to establish a regular, ongoing dialogue 

and conversation among parliamentarians about what ought to be 

done. Both in Europe and Japan, we have talked to them. They are 

ready, willing and able to establish with you, Mr. Chairman, an 

international parliamentarian group that will begin to focus on this 

disease and not allow it to rest simply with the executive branches 

of the various countries. 

And finally, on research funding, I would urge all of you to support increases in our own NIH budget, generally, as well as for Alzheimer’s research. Senators Collins and Klobuchar, last night, introduced a resolution in the Senate to double Alzheimer’s research 

from its current roughly $500 million to $1 billion in Fiscal 2015, 

and then over a period of years to increase that level of investment 

to $2 billion. 

I would urge a similar action in the House, and with your leadership, Mr. Chairman, I think that would be a formidable effort. It 

is a bipartisan effort. This is a disease that killed Ronald Reagan. 

It killed Sargent Shriver. This disease knows no party. The costs 

of this disease to our fiscal and our entitlement programs knows 

no party, and this is an area where I think the United States, as 

it has done in the past with HIV/AIDS, can do it again with Alzheimer’s and dementia. So I thank you very much for the opportunity to be here this morning, and I thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership in this space. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Vradenburg follows:]

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85645b-1.eps

Testimony of George Vradenburg 

Chairman, USAgainstAlzheimer's 

Convener, The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease 

Before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, 

Global Human Rights and International Organizations 

The Global Challenge of Alzheimer's: The G-8 Dementia Summit and Beyond 

Thursday, November 21, 2013 

Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass and other members of the Committee - Thank you very 

much for calling this important and well-timed hearing, just a few weeks before the landmark 

G8 Global Dementia Summit called for by British Prime Minister Cameron. 

A little more than two years ago, this committee held a similar hearing exploring the global 

impact of Alzheimer's disease. At that time, the United States Congress had recently passed 

the National Alzheimer's Project Act, and the Administration was working to implement the 

law. Much has changed since then, and this activity is not limited to the United States. 

In addition to the launch of the u.s. National Plan, which sets as its first goal the prevention and 

effective treatment of Alzheimer's by 2025, nearly a dozen other nations have adopted national 

strategies of their own, as have a number of regions, provinces, and states. The World Health 

Organization (WHO) last year declared dementia a "public health priority," noting that the 
9


85645b-2.eps

nearly 36 million people estimated to be living with this disease in 2010 would double by 2030 

and more than triple by 2050 if the current trajectory remains unchanged1

. 

Thankfully, the future remains unwritten, and we have seen time and again that when the 

world unites to tackle a grave threat to our health and well-being, the unthinkable becomes the 

possible. In 2000, at the G8 Summit in Okinawa, world leaders recognized the grave threat 

posed by HIVjAIDS and resolved to do something about it. Today, through programs like the 

Global Fund to Treat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the President's Emergency Plan for 

AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), millions of people worldwide are being treated, and future cases are 

being prevented. In watershed remarks delivered in March 2012, Professor Peter Piot, who led 

the United Nation's AIDS effort, called dementia one ofthe largest neglected global health 

issues of this generation and called for a global effort similar to that waged against HIVjAIDS2 

The Global Action Plan 

Today, I am here to reinforce Professor Piot's call for a global action plan and to urge this 

subcommittee and this House to be a champion and driver behind this action. I also urge that 

as part of this effort, we lay a foundation to establish a patient-centered Global Fund to Stop 

Alzheimer's, focused on delivering the resources necessary to develop and deliver therapies 

and treatments and to support patients and caregivers in this struggle. The time is now to 

capitalize on this unprecedented level of international momentum and resolve to stopping 

1 See: http://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/dementia_report_20l2/enl 

2 See: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/new5_article.php?newsID::1169 

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Alzheimer's disease and dementia and to commit the nations ofthe world to a Global Action 

Plan to stop Alzheimer's disease. In order to be as effective as were the efforts against 

HIV/AIDS, such a Plan must: 

Be comprehensive, goal oriented, and informed by experts in science, drug 

development and discovery, care delivery, financing, technology, insurance and other 

areas; and be regularly updated so as to assure a sustained unity of purpose as well as 

accountability for progress against goals; 

• Reinforce plans developed or being developed by individual nations or regions; 

Be financed with the appropriate amount of resources necessary to achieve its goals 

and objectives; and 

Enjoy the strong and sustained backing of government leaders at the highest levels, 

acting through national, multilateral and global bodies. 

Elements of the Plan 

Absent these principles, it is highly unlikely that any global action plan could be effective. 

Earlier this month, the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease, the New York Academy of 

Sciences, and the National Institute on Aging convened the Alzheimer's Disease Summit: the 

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Path ta 2025. This two-day conference brought together leading researchers, drug developers, 

investors, technology experts, policy makers and others to help flesh out a clearer path as to 

research priorities and other innovations necessary to stop Alzheimer's disease by 2025. During 

this meeting, three topics in particular emerged as priorities: 

• New mechanisms to finance Alzheimer's research and drug discovery efforts; 

• Use of a standing global clinical trial system to reduce the time, cost, and risk associated 

with clinical trials; and 

• Better use of information technology to more fully utilize the "big data" now emerging 

in electronic health records and the human genome that may hold a key to our success. 

Not a single one ofthese actions can be the exclusive domain of anyone single country. On the 

contrary, absent a truly global commitment and high degree of international collaboration, it is 

difficult to envision success in any of these areas. For example: 

• The absence of interoperability has hampered the ability to connect the databases of 

the World-Wide Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). 

• Enrollment in global Alzheimer's disease clinical trials - already a labor-intensive 

process, particularly as researchers look to conduct trials in patients with only mild 

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symptoms or who are presymptomatic - is made even more lengthy and costly absent a 

standing global Alzheimer's clinical trials network. 

• Research and development - from the basic levels to late stage translational and clinical 

science - can be duplicative absent high levels of coordination and collaboration, 

wasting scarce resource dollars, both public and private, in the process. 

The Benefits of Greater Investment & Coordination 

Despite these challenges, a recent study by RTllnternational released during the Alzheimer's 

Disease Summit makes clear the immense benefits possible through accelerating Alzheimer's 

research and development. Specifically, the report recommends an increased focus on several 

key areas - including a streamlined process to enroll in clinical trials, a stronger and more 

versatile clinical trials system able to test and qualify Alzheimer's disease biomarkers, and 

higher levels of collaboration to reduce the time, cost, and risk of therapy development - to 

accelerate the development of Alzheimer's therapies. 

Were such infrastructure changes to be adopted, the analysis shows they could significantly 

reduce the overall cost of Alzheimer's drug development from about $5.7 billion under the 

current environment to the still high yet far more manageable $2 billion. In addition, such 

reforms would shave nearly a year-and-a-half off of current drug development timeline, largely 

by allowing potential therapies to "fail faster" during less-costly earlier stages of research, 

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thereby maximizing the likelihood that compounds entering late-stage trials are likely to 

succeed. 

This significant reduction in time and cost is impressive, but the benefits don't end here. If we 

are successful in accelerating the pace of discovery and delivering disease-modifying drugs to 

patients earlier, this would likely result in an estimated 7 million fewer cases of dementia in the 

United States alone during the 15 year timeframe from 2025 to 2040. 

Potential Reduction in the Number of Cases of Dementia in the United States with an 

Improved Technical and Research Infrastructure 

9,000,000 

8,000,000 

7,000,000 

6,000,000 

5,000,000 

4,[)OO,OOO 

2,000,000 

2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 1060 

The Call to Action 

--No disease-modifying 

treatment 

- - - Existinginfrastru(ture 

--Impro')ed Infrastructure 

I)-yr, 75% 

The shaded area represents an 

estimated 7 million avoided 

case-years of dementia from 

2025 through 2040 with an 

improved technical 

infrastructure. 

The outputs of the recent 'The Path to 2025' summit and the RTI report provide the foundation 

upon which the G8, the G20, the OECD, the WHO, and other stakeholders can build upon to 

Page I 6 
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85645b-7.eps

develop the Global Action Plan to Stop Alzheimer's disease and, ultimately, a catalytic global 

fund. The G8 Summit and the planned follow-on workshops to occur throughout 2014 provide 

the process through which such a plan can be crafted, refined, and finalized. I urge the United 

States delegation to the Summit to lead this push and to commit to a set oftime-bound 

milestones to develop the plan in the coming year. I also urge the U.S. government to fully 

engage in all related international pursuits, particularly those by the G8, the G20, the 

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the WHO, that are 

focused on Alzheimer's and dementia. Specifically, I call upon our government to more fully 

participate in the work being done by the OECD in this important area. 

From a Congressional standpoint, I encourage this subcommittee to continue doing what you 

are doing in conducting invaluable oversight of U.S. and global efforts to address the 

Alzheimer's crisis. I also urge you to consider opportunities to work with a growing body of 

parliamentarians in other nations - particularly the UK, the European Union, and Japan - who 

are also deeply interested in stopping Alzheimer's and dementia and willing to engage in 

dialogue with fellow parliamentarians on this topic. Such efforts could be highly productive in 

spurring and sustaining the commitment of governments to the Global Action Plan. 

Finally, I will close with one thought on research financing, recognizing the continued fiscal 

challenges our nation and others are facing. I've said many times that we don't have a choice 

as to whether or not we will pay for the costs of Alzheimer's and dementia. Taxpayers are 

paying dearly today, to the tune of about $140 billion in annual entitlement costs of care 

Page I 7 
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shouldered by Medicare and Medicaid, a price tag that will skyrocket over the coming years. 

On the flip side, even despite some recent modest yet important infusions offunding for 

Alzheimer's disease research, our public commitment to this goal languishes at about $500 

million annually, about 0.36 percent of the amount spent every year on care. 

If global governments would commit 1 percent of their annual costs of caring for Alzheimer's 

patients, this would begin moving toward a level of Alzheimer's disease research funding 

commensurate with the scope of the challenge. A portion of this funding could also be used to 

seed a Global Fund to Stop Alzheimer's disease and to implement a Global Action Plan to Stop 

Alzheimer's disease, similar to efforts waged against HIV/AIDS. Here at home, a growing 

number of lawmakers and advocates have been promoting a near-term doubling of the 

Alzheimer's and dementia budget at the NIH, a move that would make significant progress in 

this direction. I urge the members ofthis committee to strongly consider this idea. 

Thank you, again, for conducting this hearing. Despite the challenges that lay ahead, I remain 

optimistic that our nation and our world can stop Alzheimer's disease if we commit ourselves to 

this ambitious goal, and I urge you to advance a Global Action Plan to Stop Alzheimer's to drive 

this work. 

Page I 8 
16

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Vradenburg, thank you very much for your leadership and for your extraordinarily crisp and incisive testimony 

with very concrete recommendations. And you are right. We just 

have to lead. I think your point was very well taken. 

Mr. VRADENBURG. The scarcest commodity in this field, Chairman, is leadership. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. Baumgart? 

STATEMENT OF MR. MATTHEW BAUMGART, SENIOR 

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION 

Mr. BAUMGART. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would 

ask that my written testimony be included in the record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, so ordered. 

Mr. BAUMGART. I want to thank you and the members of this 

committee for holding this important hearing today on the global 

dementia crisis and the upcoming G–8 summit on dementia research. Mr. Chairman, the Alzheimer’s Association is the world’s 

largest private, nonprofit funder of Alzheimer’s research, and we 

are also the world’s leading organization on Alzheimer’s care and 

support. Every day, we see what this devastating disease does to 

families. We see what it does to individuals. And we see the heavy 

toll it takes on family members. 

I want to tell you one particular story of somebody that we have 

worked with and we have helped. His name is Randy and he lives 

in California, is the caregiver for his mother who has Alzheimer’s 

disease. And in Randy’s words, I know there is going to be a problem when Mom goes into the bathroom and doesn’t come out for 

a long time, because she is either too embarrassed or too proud to 

ask for help. Randy continues by saying, I know then that I am 

going to have to clean up not only Mom but the entire bathroom. 

And Randy says he finds himself often asking, who would have believed that I would be changing the diapers of the woman who 

changed mine? 

That is Alzheimer’s disease. It is not just a little memory loss. 

It is not a normal part of aging. It is a devastating disease that 

means the loss of anything and everything you have ever known. 

And as you noted, there are now over 35 million people worldwide 

living with dementia, over 5 million here in the United States, as 

Mr. Bera noted. Those numbers could triple by mid-century; 115 

million people globally could be living with dementia. 

In addition to the toll that Alzheimer’s disease takes on families, 

it also takes a toll on government budgets. A study published in 

the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year found that 

dementia was the most costly disease in America, costing more 

than cancer and heart disease. And the estimates are that 70 percent of the costs of caring for people with the disease are borne by 

taxpayers through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Globally, 

as you noted, in 2010 the cost of dementia was $604 billion. If dementia were a country, it would be the 18th largest global economy. 

Mr. Chairman, a global crisis requires a global response. And 

here in the United States we began that response in 2010 when 

Congress unanimously passed, through your leadership, the NaVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:33 Mar 31, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\131121\85645 SHIRL
17

tional Alzheimer’s Project Act, which requires the Federal Government for the first time ever to have a national strategy on how to 

address this crisis. This leadership, here in the United States must 

now be extended to a global effort, starting with the G–8 summit 

in London on December 11th. 

The G–8 summit provides a unique opportunity to tackle dementia on a global scale. If it is to be successful, we at the Alzheimer’s 

Association believe that the G–8 nations must develop a shared vision for addressing and driving dementia research over the next 

decade. Specifically, that means there must be a commitment from 

each country of the G–8 to increase its own level of dementia research funding commensurate with the level of the crisis. It means 

identifying additional innovative research opportunities and mechanisms such as public-private partnerships. It means improved coordination in dementia research across governments, the research 

community, nonprofit organizations as well as private industry. 

And it means a commitment to create an environment in each 

country that will train, attract and develop the very best scientists. 

Finally, we believe that each G–8 nation must commit to developing its own national dementia plan much as the United States, 

the United Kingdom, and France, among the G–8 nations, have already done. But let us be clear. The G–8 summit is not the end of 

the process, it is only the beginning of the process. As important 

as it is for the G–8 nations to develop a shared vision, a shared 

commitment and a shared strategy, it is equally important that 

they commit to action following the summit. A vision, a commitment and a strategy must be implemented if we are going to succeed globally. 

In closing, Mr. Chairman, I would like to go back to something 

that you mentioned, and that is, past efforts on global cooperation. 

Because of medical research and medical innovation globally and 

cooperatively, millions of people around the globe have better lives. 

It has improved the lives of people who are living with heart disease, with HIV/AIDS, and with cancer. Now is the time to make 

dementia a global priority, and the G–8 summit provides a historic 

opportunity to do so. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Baumgart follows:]

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www.alz.org Public Policy Office 

1212 New York Avenue, NW 

Suite 800 

Washington, DC 20005-6105 

202 393 7737 P 

866 865 0270 f 

alzheimer's Q) association 

Testimony of Matthew Baumgart, Senior Director of Public Polic:y of the Alzheimer's Association 

The Global Challenge of Alzheimer's The G-8 Dementia Summit and Beyond 

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Right, and International Organizations 

Committee on Foreign Affairs 

United States House of Representatives 

November 21,2013 

Good morning Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to 

testify on the global challenge of Alzheimer's disease and the opportunity for global progress with the upcoming G8 Summit on 

dementia research 

Founded in 1980, the Alzheimer's Association is the world's leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support, 

and research. Our miSSion is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease and other dementias through the advancement of research, to provide 

and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health, As the world's 

largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's research, the Association IS committed to accelerating progress of new treatments, preventions, 

and ultimately a cure. Through our funded projects and partnerships, we have been a part of every major research advancement over 

the past 30 years. And, through our work to enhance care and provide support for all those affected by Alzheimer's, we have helped 

millions of indiViduals liVing With the disease and their families 

The Global Impact of Alzheimer's 

Alzheimer's disease is a global public health crisis. This crisis is placing - and will increasingly place - an enormous strain on 

families, the health care system, and government budgets of nations around the world. Current estimates indicate that about 36 million 

people worldwide are living with dementia, and when we reach the middle of the 21st century, there will be 115 million people living 

with dementia. Dementia has been creating an enormous burden in North America and Western Europe. Increasingly, that burden is 

spreading to low- and moderate-Income countries, Between 2010 and 2050, the number of people with dementia in low- and moderateincome countries is expected to quadruple - and the proportion of worldwide dementia cases in low- and moderate-income countries 

will increase from 58 percent to over 70 percent. 

the cornpassion to care, the leadership to conquer 
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2 

In ils 2010 annual report - The Global Economic Impact of Dementia - Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) reported that 

the global cost of dementia totaled $604 billion in 2010, amounting to one percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GOP). If dementia 

were a country, it would be the 18th largest global economy. 

Research shows that most people currently living with dementia have not received a formal diagnosis. In the United States, as 

many as half of the over 5 million individuals with Alzheimer's have not been diagnosed. And, in India, a study found that nearly 90 

percent of those with dementia remain unidentified. In total, ADI concluded in 2011 that as many as 28 million of the 36 million people 

living with dementia throughout the world have not been diagnosed and therefore do not have access to the treatment, care, and 

organized support that a formal diagnosis enables. 

The global burden of this devastating disease was further underscored in this year's ADI report on long-term care. The report 

found that as the world's population ages, the traditional system of informal care by family, friends, and community will require much 

greater support. Today, it is estimated that 13 percent of people aged 60 or over require long-term care. Between 2010 and 2050, the 

total number of older people with care needs will nearly triple from 101 million to 277 million. And people with dementia are a large 

portion of that number. In the United States, for example, nearly 65 percent of nursing home residents have dementia. 

Global Research Efforts 

The global Alzheimer's crisis requires a global response. And while the Alzheimer's Association is a U.S.-based organization, 

we are committed to working globally to eliminate Alzheimer's disease. No single organization can surmount a challenge as great as 

Alzheimer's. To help achieve our vision of a world without Alzheimer's, the Association partners with key government, industry, and 

academic stakeholders around the world. We believe in the value of collaboration and that it can be the catalyst toward achieving 

disease-modifying treatments, prevention, and ultimately a cure. 

The Association formula for progress rests on four pillars: funding, collaborating with investigators, sharing data, and 

overcoming barriers to progress. The first pillar is the Alzheimer's Association International Grant Program Typically 10 to 15 percent 

of our grant funds are spent outside the United States. Currently, we fund active grants in 21 countries, and have funded research in 28 

countries overall 

The second pillar of the Alzheimer's Association program is encouraging increased cooperation between scientists. The 

Association convenes the largest meeting of Alzheimer's scientists every year - the Alzheimer's Association International Conference 
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85645c-3.eps

(MIC). This year in Boston, over 5,000 scientists attended MIC to share research results, compare progress, and develop new 

working collaborations to advance the fight against the disease. 

The third pillar of our program is the sharing of information. We initiated the International Society to Advance Alzheimer's 

Research and Treatment (ISTAART), a professional society that encourages networking among Alzheimer's researchers so they can 

share their findings and learn from each other. We also publish Alzheimer's & Dementia, which has been rated as the highest impact 

dementia Journal and the third in impact among 191 clinical neurology journals. Alzheimer's & Dementia provides a single peerreviewed publication for the global scientific community to report the latest research developments and results 

The fourth and final pillar of our global research efforts is investing in large-scale projects to overcome common barriers In the 

field of Alzheimer's. Projects include TrialMatchTM -- an individualized clinical trial matching service for people with Alzheimer's and 

other dementi as - World Wide Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (WW-ADNI) - the umbrella organization of neuroimaging 

initiatives being conducted around the world - and the Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) Quality Control Program - which brings together 

laboratories across the globe with the aim of standardizing the measurement of potential Alzheimer's biomarkers. 

Changing the Trajectory of Alzheimer's 

As I mentioned, no single organization can surmount a challenge as great as Alzheimer's. And no matter how important and 

critical the Association's global efforts are, we will not be successful without a serious and sustained commitment from the federal 

government In 2010, the bipartisan National Alzheimers Project Act (NAPA) (P.L. 111-375) passed Congress unanimously, requiring 

the creation of an annually-updated strategic National Alzheimer's Plan to help those With the disease and their families today and to 

change the trajectory of the disease for the future. The Plan is required to include an evaluation of all federally-funded efforts in 

Alzheimer's research, care, and services - along with their outcomes NAPA will allow Congress to assess whether the nation is 

meeting the challenges of this disease for families, communities, and the economy. Through its annual review process, NAPA will, for 

the first time, enable Congress and the American people to answer this simple question' are we making satisfactory progress in the 

fight against Alzheimer's? 

As mandated by NAPA, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the Advisory Council on 

Alzheimer's Research, Care, and Services, developed the first-ever National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease in May 2012, with 

an update released in June 2013. The Advisory Council, composed of both federal members and expert non-federal members, is an 
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4 

integral part of the planning process as it advises the Secretary in developing and evaluating the annual Plan, makes recommendations 

to the Secretary and Congress, and assists in coordinating the work of federal agencies involved in Alzheimer's research, care, and 

services 

Having a Plan with measurable outcomes is important. But unless there are resources to implement the Plan and the will to 

follow through on its action steps, we cannot hope to make much progress, If we are going to succeed in the fight against Alzheimer's, 

Congress must provide the resources the SCientists need. A disease-modifying or preventive therapy would not only save millions of 

lives but would save billions of dollars in health care costs. According to an eoonomic model developed by the non-partisan health 

econometrics firm, The Lewin Group, a treatment that delayed the onset of Alzheimer's by five years (a treatment similar to anticholesterol drugs) would reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending on people with Alzheimers nearly in half in 2050. 

Because of the Plan, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) finally has created a blueprint for Alzheimer's research that 

includes a timeline and milestones toward the goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer's by 2025. And, we are grateful for 

the additional resources that NI H has provided for Alzheimer's research in the past couple of years, including the recent announcement 

by NIH Director Francis Collins that $45 million In additional funding would go to Alzheimer's research. These are, however, baby 

steps. According to a study published earlier this year in the New Eng/and Journal of Medicine, dementia is the most expensive 

disease in America. We do not have a commitment on research funding commensurate with this crisis. For every $27,000 that 

Medicare and Medicaid spend caring for individuals with Alzheimer's, NIH spends only $100 on Alzheimer's research. Scientists 

fundamentally believe that we have the ideas, the technology, and the will to develop new Alzheimer's interventions. But progress 

depends on a prioritized scientific agenda backed up by the necessary resources to carry it out. 

The scientists have determined that additional research on Alzheimer's is a priority, and they have asked Congress to provide 

an additional $80 million in funding for fiscal year 2014. Their budget request reflects the urgent need for Alzheimer's research and the 

scientific opportunity that now exists. It is vital that Congress support the research projects the scientists at NIH deem necessary. 

What Needs to Be Done at the G8 Meeting 

But just as the Alzheimer's Association cannot go it alone, so, too, the United States cannot go it alone. Congress recognized 

this when it passed NAPA, which requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to coordinate with international bodies "to 

integrate and inform the fight against Alzheimer's globally." In 2012, the World Health Organization called dementia a public health 
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priority, and now dementia research must become a global priority. The G8 Summit in London on December 11 is a unique opportunity 

for international leaders to tackle dementia on a global scale, and it presents a historic opportunity to transform our commitment and 

approach. 

The Alzheimer's Association believes that if the G8 is going to make a difference in dementia policy and research, then the G8 

nations must develop a collaborative, global action plan for government, industry, and nonprofit organizations to work collaboratively 

and effectively on an international scale, with appropriate Infrastructure and policies in place that break down barriers to effective 

research. 

Specifically, It IS vital that the G8 nations develop a shared vision for driving dementia research over the next decade to 

ensure the development of effective treatments for people worldwide. This vision should include a commitment by each country to 

increase its own funding into the cause, cure, and prevention of dementia to a level proportionate to the human and economic burden 

of the disease. It must include identifying additional, innovative funding models, such as public-private partnerships. It must involve 

improved coordination in research efforts among governments, the research community, non-profit organizations, and industry. And, it 

must Include a commitment to creating a research environment that attracts, develops, and trains the very best sCientists, clinicians, 

and health care professionals 

Finally, each G8 country must commit to having a national Alzheimer's and dementia plan of ItS own, Just as the United States, 

the United Kingdom, and France have - plans that evaluate progress and share results to determine the best practices and most 

effective policies. 

Moving Beyond the G8 Summit 

But, let's be clear: the G8 summit is not the end of the process; it is only the beginning. As important as it is for the G8 

countries to develop a shared vision, a shared commitment, and a shared strategy for moving forward, it is equally important that there 

be concerted and sustained action following the Summit. The vision, the commitment, and the strategy must be implemented if we are 

to succeed 

The G8 Summit must also be just the start of a wider global conversation about making dementia a global priority. Other 

global bodies, including the World Health Organization through efforts such as the Global Action Plan on the Prevention and Control of 

Noncommunicable Diseases, must work to support not only increased dementia research but also the development of care and support 
23


85645c-6.eps

6 

systems in low- and moderate-income countries to relieve the dramatically growing impact of dementia on their health and social 

systems 

Mr. Chairman, medical research has transformed the lives of millions living with heart disease, stroke, HIV/AIDSj and cancer 

Now is the time to make dementia a priority. 

Thank you again for inviting me to participate in this important discussion about the global impact of Alzheimer's disease and 

the G8 Summit on dementia research. The Alzheimer's Association commends the Subcommittee for holding loday's hearing, and we 

look forward to continuing to work with you to do all we can to improve the lives of those living with Alzheimer's as well as of those who 

care for them. 
24

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much for your leadership and your 

testimony as well, and it couldn’t have been better stated. I do 

hope that the administration, and I think it is, is paying close attention to what the advocates who really walk point on this issue, 

and you two are chief among them. We did invite HHS to be here. 

I am a little bit chagrined that they are not here, but I give them 

the benefit of the doubt, as long as they do the right thing. And 

we will be doing a follow-up hearing on what we do next after 

whatever the G–8 comes to conclusions about in terms of what 

their plan of action will be. 

And I think your point, the parallels with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, is just so compelling. I remember when Henry Hyde sat 

here and he was the prime sponsor of the Bush-backed bill, he 

brought in conservatives, moderates, liberals across the board. The 

same thing happened over on the Senate side. But PEPFAR looked 

like Mount Everest when it was first introduced, and now looking 

back it was like, well, why wasn’t that an easy pass? It wasn’t, but 

it took leadership. And our hope, and you both have said it, how 

important it is that we lead. That the G–8 summit is only a beginning, it is not the end. It is not a little check in the box and then 

you move on to something else. This has to be serious and sustained. 

And we do have Dr. Pfeifer on line ready to testify, and so if we 

could go to her, and then we will go to questions. 

STATEMENT OF ANDREA PFEIFER, PH.D., CHIEF EXECUTIVE 

OFFICER, AC IMMUNE (APPEARING VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE) 

Ms. PFEIFER. Mr. Chairman Smith, members of the committee, 

I am honored to be invited today to address the members of the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs as you consider potential policies for 

discussion at the upcoming G–8 Dementia Summit in London. Perhaps I will make a few opening remarks. For the past 10 years I 

have built from scratch the company AC Immune, which is focused 

on developing potentials, therapies and diagnostics for Alzheimer’s. 

We have some notable success of a drug, Crenezumab, invented by 

us and developed by Genentech, which was selected to be tested in 

the world’s first ever prevention trial for Alzheimer’s funded under 

President Obama’s NAPA initiative. 

My passion as a scientist to find a therapy for this terrible disease is matched by my determination to engage with key policymakers such as yourselves to pull together all the key elements of 

a global action plan similar to what the world established 30 years 

ago when faced with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In my view, the challenges of Alzheimer’s today are on the same scale if not greater. 

Previous speakers have commented on the hard, basic facts on 

Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S. I would like to draw your attention 

to the European situation. We do face exactly the same problem 

with Alzheimer’s in Europe as in the U.S. The disease is a terrible 

human burden with a massive economic impact. However, at the 

same time it is heavily under-researched and the research is 

under-financed. An estimated 8.5 million Europeans currently suffer from the disease. As in other countries, the number is projected 

to nearly double every 20 years as a result of an aging population. 

Only very few countries as, for example, France, Sweden, and the 

25

UK have established policies and strategic plans similar to a NAPA 

in the U.S. 

We are a drug-developing company with a dream on the goal to 

find an ultimate cure for Alzheimer’s disease facing several major 

challenges. We do not know the exact cause of the disease and the 

molecular basis. We know, however, that there are proteins in the 

body, namely, beta-amyloid and tau which are ultimately involved 

in the disease. One of the stumbling blocks of Alzheimer’s treatments seem to be the time of clinical intervention. Learning from 

the recent failures of drugs in clinical development, the scientific 

community and industry strives toward very early pre-symptomatic 

intervention and even prevention of the disease. 

Unfortunately, as you can imagine, delivering a therapy to people 

before they are even showing symptoms implicates huge clinical 

trials with large patient numbers, incredibly long timelines and 

costs that exceed the infrastructure and possibilities of a single 

company even if it is a big pharma company. Some of the most serious challenges which we only are able to tackle with common efforts are the need for early diagnostic and well-accepted biomarkers to accelerate clinical trials, access to patients and the need to 

share data, regulatory hurdles and funding. 

Europe has very important activities ongoing and I will mention 

three important ones. First, the European Medicines Agency released a concept paper on the need to revise the guidelines on 

medicines for treatment of Alzheimer’s, for public consultation until 

January. A second initiative is a private-public partnership for AD 

clinical trials, EPOCH AD, focusing on cooperation between government, industry and academia to enhance the drug development 

process. Third, the European Commission also created the European Innovation Partnership, EIP, on Active and Healthy Aging, a 

stakeholder-driven approach to innovation in its domain. All of 

these activities are highly welcome and can serve as a wonderful 

platform on which a global Alzheimer’s action plan can be built on. 

I applause for UK Prime Minister Cameron for conveying the 

first G–8 summit on Dementia to work on the four already-mentioned pillars. Building cooperation networks among governments, 

regulators, the private sector and nonprofits; sharing of knowledge 

leading to prevention of dementia; investment in solution and 

treatments; and laying the foundation for transition to an aging society without dementia. 

I am particular enthusiastic and optimistic about the potential 

for greater levels of public-private partnership not limited to one 

nation or region but rather spanning the world. Such efforts are 

necessary if we are to achieve our shared goal of defeating Alzheimer’s disease and dementia which affects the entire globe and 

just national borders. It is a global crisis that merits a global response. 

In conclusion, it is my earnest desire to convey to the committee, 

Mr. Chairman, that we need the inspiring leadership of the United 

States Government to play a key role and be a role model in facing 

one of the most severe and complex challenge of the 21st century. 

The U.S. could play a cohesive role in helping to join hands 

through the G–8 summit and extending the message across the 

26

OECD. The CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease spearheaded by 

George Vradenburg can be the key catalyst of all of these efforts. 

Although many differences exist within the international community, we share an important goal: Finding a cure for Alzheimer’s 

disease and eliminating the personal, financial and social burden 

of this disease. I remain confident that with the united forces and 

the lead of your nation in a global action plan we can achieve this 

goal. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for this hearing, and I welcome questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Pfeifer follows:]

27


85645a-1.eps

Testimony of Prof. Andrea Pfeifer 

Chief Executive Officer 

AC IMMUNE 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International 

Organizations 

259A Ford House Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20515 

The Global Challenge of Alzheimer's: The G-8 Dementia Summit and Beyond 

November 21, 2013 

Page 1 of 5 
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85645a-2.eps

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. 

Thank you Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass and other members of the Committee. I am Dr. 

Andrea Pfeifer, the CEO of AC Imrnune, a biopharmaceutical company based in Switzerland 

developing drugs against Alzheimer's disease. Founded in 2003, AC Immune takes pride in the 

discovery of Crenezumab, which is being developed by Genentech with support from NIH for the first 

ever preventive clinical trial in Colombia and the US. AC I mmune has three clinical trial programs, four 

preclinical and a diagnostic program. I am honored to be invited today to address the members of the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs as you consider potential policies for discussion at the upcoming G8 

Dementia Summit in London. 

I have the honor to serve alongside my peers in the Global CEO Initiative on AD. My passion as a 

scientist to find a therapy to mitigate the medical effects of this terrible disease is matched by my 

determination to engage with key policymakes such as yourselves to pull together all the key elements 

of a Global Action Plan similar to that the world established 30 years ago when faced with the 

HIV/AIDS epidemic. In my view, the challenges of AD today are on the same scale, if not greater. 

Let me start the session with some hard basic facts on AD: 

AD is an irreversible degeneration of the brain that causes a loss of memory, 

cognition, personality and other functions that eventually lead to death. 

AD is not a normal part of aging but its occurrence correlates with aging 

There is no cure. 

According to the World Health Organization and Alzheimer's Disease International 

2012 Dementia Report, it is estimated that there were 35.6 million people with 

dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, worldwide in 2010. This number is projected 

to nearly double every 20 years, increasing to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 

2050.' 

With an ageing population, the prevalence of AD is estimated to continue to grow 

across Europe at about the same pace as in the US. 

Several countries, including France, Australia and England, have specific plans in 

place to address dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.' 

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES: 

As a researcher and a CEO, my specific role today is to share with you some challenges of the 

research and development in Alzheimer's disease. Even more than a century after it was first 

observed, today we still do not know the exact causes of the disease and the exact molecular basis. 

We do know that AD is characterized by the loss of neurons and synapses which translates into loss 

of brain volume and atrophy of certain regions of the brain. We also know that two proteins - Betaamyloid and Tau - are shown to be ultimately involved in the disease process. 

The goal of the research is to find a total cure. Alzheimer's disease (AD) might be treated with 

symptomatic, neuroprotective, or neurorestorative therapies. Neuroprotective and neurorestorative 

interventions are disease-modifying therapies, none of which exist today. Disease modification can be 

defined as treatments or interventions that affect the underlying pathophysiology of the disease and 

have a beneficial outcome on the course of AD. In a clinical trial the criteria for affecting the underlying 

cause of the disease can be supported by demonstrating an effect on a biomarker such as medial 

temporal atrophy on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or diminished tau or phospho-tau levels in 

cerebrospinal fluid. A delay in onset of 5 years starting 2015 results in US$ 447 billion saving oltotal 

expected costs of US$ 1.078 billion in the US alone. 

One of the stumbling blocks of AD treatment is the time of intervention. Learning from the failures of 

recent drugs in clinical development, there is scientific consensus that early presymptomatic 

intervention appears to be the best shot. As you would imagine, delivering a therapy to people before 

they are even showing signs of the illness or when the illness may be in its earliest forms poses 

another significant challenge in designing and implementing clinical trials and in recruiting patients. 

1 Alzheimer's Disease International, World Health Organization. Dementia: A PubliC Health Priority. April 2012. 

http://www.who.int/mental_health/publicationsfd ementi a_re port_2 a 12. 

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This makes early and accurate diagnosis and clinical trial recruitment infrastructure imperative to our 

efforts at achieving success. 

Today, clinical testing assessing (memory function) is still the state-of-the-art methodology; there has 

been a great effort to ease and standardized these clinical protocols for practicing physicians. The 

only definite diagnosis is post-mortem when brain material is available and the tangles can be 

histological examined (Braak stages).Recently important advances have been made in Neuroimaging 

which provides prognostic value for disease diagnosis and progression. However, Neuroimaging is 

very expensive and not yet easily accessible. 

Biomarkers have the potential to help better identify Alzheimer's patients during the pre-symptomatic 

stages of the disease. They have proven to be vital in therapy development efforts, particularly when 

dealing with a disease as complex as Alzheimer's because they help researchers understand whether 

or not a potential therapy is having an impact sure of an outright cure or reversal of a disease. A 

commonly understood biomarker would be cholesterol levels. We know that high cholesterol is a driver 

of heart disease. Therefore, we know that medications, like statins that lower cholesterol levels, can 

be effective in reducing one's risk for heart disease. Another example would be the viral load or the 

level of HIV in a person's blood. Medications today exist to lower a person's viral load and, in so 

doing, control the virus. While biomarkers are quite helpful, qualifying or validating a biomarker so that 

it is widely accepted by the research community and by regulators - such as at the EMA and the FDA 

who will be reviewing a drug to determine if it is safe and effective - is a challenge in the Alzheimer's 

space, a challenge that must be tackled. 

Really important advances have been made in neuroimaging and biomarker research. However, their 

validation for disease diagnosis and progress as well as their utility of assessment of drug responses 

is still ongoing. 

On 31 October, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) released a concept paper on the need to 

revise the guideline on medicines for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other dementi as for 

public consultation. 

New research diagnostic criteria are being used in clinical trials for different stages of the disease. In 

addition, a number of biomarkers to help identify and select patients at the pre-dementia stage of the 

disease have been developed by medicines developers; several have received a qualification opinion 

from the Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for use in the 

development of medicines. 

The concept paper describes how these new developments have had an impact on recent and future 

clinical-trial protocols and discusses the elements to consider as part of the revision of the current 

guideline. These include the; 

I mpact of new diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease, including early and 

even asymptomatic disease stages on clinical-trial design; 

Choice of parameters to measure trial outcomes and the need for distinct 

assessment tools for the different disease stages in Alzheimer's (different 

signs and symptoms, differences in change over time, severity); 

Assessment of efficacy and safety in different age groups; 

Potential use of biomarkers and their temporal relationship with the different 

phases of Alzheimer's disease at different stages of medicine development 

(mechanism of action, use as diagnostic test, enrichment of study 

populations, stratification of subgroups, safety and efficacy markers, etc.); 

Design of long-term efficacy and safety studies; 

Usefulness of combination therapy and corresponding study designs. 

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THE G8 DEMENTIA SUMMIT AND BEYOND: 

In Europe AD has been put on the priority agenda of many governments. The health ministers from 

the G8 nations will meet the first ever global summit on dementia to help improve management of the 

disease and accelerate the development of new treatments under the leadership of the UK 

government. 

Prime Minister David Cameron and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said they will use the UK's 

presidency of the G8 this year to spearhead "coordinated global action" against one of the greatest 

current health care challenges. I applaud Prime Minister Cameron for this leadership and urge other 

G8 nations to support this work at the highest level possible. 

The high-level summit, which is to be held in London on December 11, will host discussion to shape 

an effective international solution to dementia, including looking for effective therapies and responses 

to slow dementia's impact. 

The G8 have a unique chance to help people manage dementia better, lead healthier lives and deliver 

real improvements in care and substantial economic savings. 

Currently, someone is diagnosed with dementia every four seconds around the globe and the disease 

costs more than $650 billion a year. While 70% of this cost is incurred in 'medically advanced' nations 

like Western Europe and North America, nearly 60% of people with the condition live in developing 

countries. 

The four pillars of the G8 Dementia Summit are the followings: 

1. Building cooperation networks among governments, regulators, the private sector and 

the nonprofits. 

2. Coordination in business leading to prevention of dementia. 

3. Investment in solutions and treatments. 

4. Laying the foundations for a transition to an aging society without dementia. 

am particularly enthusiastic and optimistic about the potential for greater levels of public-private 

partnership not limited to one nation or region but rather spanning the world. Such efforts are 

necessary if we are to achieve our shared goals of defeating Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's and 

dementia affect the entire globe and do not recognize national borders. It is a global crisis that merits 

a global response. 

Beyond the CEO Initiative and the G8 Summit, let me provide you with a brief update on some other 

encouraging developments happening primarily here in Europe. 

European Commission 

European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP) is a new stakeholder-driven 

approach to innovation, whose overarching target is to add two years to the average number of 

healthy life years in the European Union by the year 2020. 

The Partnership is in its implementation phase: more than 3,000 partners are involved in mobilizing 

efforts and resources to carry forward the EIP 6 action plans: 

Prescription and adherence to treatment 

Personalized health management: Falls prevention 

Prevention of functional decline and frailty 

Integrated care for chronic diseases, including remote monitoring at regional level 

Interoperable independent living solutions 

Age friendly buildings, cities and environments 

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Private Public Partnership for AD Clinical Trials (EPOC-AD) 

Greater cooperation and collaboration between academia, government and industry could enhance 

the drug development process. A public-private partnership is proposed to promote more efficient 

clinical trial designs and execution of clinical trials aimed at preventing AD dementia. The plan would 

create a precompetitive space to enable collaboration for optimizing patient selection, clinical trials 

methodologies, and candidate therapies, as well as conducting adaptive clinical trials that will produce 

the greatest likelihood of success. 

The mission of EPOC-AD is therefore to advance this novel collaborative partnership and drive a more 

successful approach to drug development for preventing AD dementia. The goal is to enable rapid 

cycling of learning from registries and longitudinal cohorts into adaptive clinical trials that shorten 

time lines, improve efficiencies and permit more rapid dissemination of knowledge. A consortium of 

industrial, governmental and academic partners will be formed to advance this research program 

EPOC-AD will conduct a continuous, global, multicenter and multi-agent clinical trial designed to 

efficiently identify treatments, or combinations of treatments, with sufficient promise for the prevention 

of halting of progression of AD to warrant definitive confirmatory testing. Basically, the trial will serve 

as an efficient and rigorous screen or gateway prior to confirmatory standalone trials. 

CONCLUSION: 

In conclusion, it is my earnest desire to convey to the Committee that we need the inspiring leadership 

of the United States government to playa key role and be a role model in facing one of the most 

severe and complex challenges of the 21" century. The US could playa cohesive role in helping to 

join hands through the G8 Summit, extending the message across to the OECD. The CEOi can be the 

key catalyst of all of these efforts. 

Thank you again for this hearing. Although many differences exist within the international community, 

we share an important goal: finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease and eliminating the personal, 

financial and social burdens of this terrible disease. I remain confident that with united forces and the 

lead of your nation in a Global Action Plan, we can achieve this goal. 

Page 5 of5 
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Mr. SMITH. Dr. Pfeifer, thank you very much for taking the time 

to address our subcommittee and by extension the U.S. Congress, 

and thank you for your extraordinary work on behalf of Alzheimer’s 

patients. 

A couple of questions that I would like to just raise. Do any of 

our panelists have a sense as to where—everyone asks me in my 

district and I get this every time I am out on the road particularly 

when I am speaking about Alzheimer’s. How close are we to a 

breakthrough on delaying early onset, certainly recognizing it, but 

the drugs that are in the mix that are in the pipeline, is there reason for serious hope that we may be many years away or maybe 

just a few? What is your sense on that? 

Mr. VRADENBURG. I will give you a view, but I would be very interested in both the Association and Andrea’s view since this is obviously unscripted. There are several drugs in late stages of development in the pipeline. They are targeted at mild to moderate 

cases of dementia and have not yet been targeted to earlier cases, 

at least in the current late-stage trials. And they are showing a 

modicum of possibility that we could slow down the rate of decline. 

Those drugs are going to be finishing trials in the roughly 2015–

2016 time frame. They will be before, if those trials are successful, 

the FDA in the 2016–1017 time frame, and it is possible that we 

will have a first generation drug for mild to moderate victims of 

this disease in that time frame. 

The world as Dr. Pfeifer has laid out has now begun to shift its 

attention to earlier stages of the disease, so the same drug that is 

now in trials for mild to moderate dementia is now going into trial 

for much earlier stages of dementia, and if those prove successful 

then we will have a drug on the market that may be potentially 

administerable to patients before they get any signs of cognitive or 

functional decline, and on the current timeline that would probably 

be in 2018 to 2020 time frame. But I have always said to treat it 

as the metaphor of what happens when you try and introduce a 

new product. The first time you get a new product it is clunky, it 

is expensive. The second generation of that product is better, it will 

be less expensive, it will be more effective. 

So while I think there is reason for confidence that by 2020 we 

will have a drug on the market that will have a modest effect on 

the progression of this disease, I think that the prospect of getting 

a truly effective means of prevention and treatment is possible, 

perhaps even likely by 2025, but quite frankly, dependents highly 

on funding and focus between now and then. So I think this is not 

something that by 2025 is going to happen with business as usual. 

It is going to require increased focus and increased resource in 

order to get us there. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. BAUMGART. I would say I am cautiously optimistic, but I 

would underscore what George said at the end of his statement. I 

think that the scientific community has the ideas, the will is there, 

the technology is there. What is lacking is the level of resources 

and the commitment that is necessary to get us there. And so I am 

optimistic that we can, but it will require a greater commitment. 

The National Plan, as you know, includes a goal of effectively 

treating and preventing Alzheimer’s by 2025. There will be interim 

33

steps. There will be interim progress. And one of the great developments of the National Plan so far is that the National Institutes 

of Health finally has a blueprint; it has timelines; and it has milestones for us to reach that goal. So I think the question now is 

whether we will, and the government will, come through with the 

resources that are necessary. 

Mr. SMITH. Dr. Pfeifer, did you want to speak to that? 

Ms. PFEIFER. Yes. I just would like to add maybe one aspect 

which I consider is enormously important for the progress we need. 

As it was mentioned by George and previously also by myself, the 

world is changing from intervention treatment trials to prevention 

trials because obviously the biggest impact on society would be if 

we could actually prevent the disease rather than treat the disease. 

Now as we all know there is no diagnostic means today available 

which would allow us to actually select the patients which would 

eventually get the disease. So the only way to do that is actually 

to work with genetically predisposed population, like, for example, 

the Colombia population, in order to really test if prevention is possible. 

So my wish, my dream, would be to have concerted actions and 

funding to support research toward biomarkers and better diagnostic means. Because only if we can, in fact, enhance the early 

diagnostics, so diagnostic before the disease started, only then we 

can really think about prevention trial which would really change 

result. So we need more funding for doing research in this important area. 

Mr. SMITH. Yes? 

Mr. BAUMGART. I would just add, Mr. Chairman, that the greatest obstacle to progress after funding is the number of people who 

are not participating in clinical trials. We need a lot more participants in clinical trials, not only those with the disease, but when 

it comes to things like prevention trials, we need healthy individuals to enroll in clinical trials as well. And I know there are some 

efforts underway, and the Alzheimer’s Association has a trial 

match program to try to encourage this. But efforts by the government to encourage greater participation in clinical trials are also 

important if we are going to get there. 

Mr. SMITH. As I think we all know, the U.N. estimates for 

growth in population is almost always about aging. When we climb 

to 9 billion or thereabouts, maybe even 10 billion, it is not about 

children it is about aging, and people are living longer, which is all 

the more reason why the call and the action plans have to be put 

into place now as never before, which is why we are having this 

hearing. 

I wanted to ask you a couple of very quick questions. We have 

an hour’s worth of voting on the floor that just started and so I will 

ask a few questions and then yield to Mr. Weber because I don’t 

want to have you sit here and wait a full hour. But the amount 

of money, the billion dollars that you mentioned earlier, Mr. 

Vradenburg. We have tried, as you know, for years, and we worked 

very closely with both of you, frankly, to try to get the Alzheimer’s 

Breakthrough Act passed, to get it up to at least $750 billion of 

NIH funding, and we fall far short all the time despite herculean 

efforts, bipartisan to the core. 

34

How many good—and Dr. Pfeifer you might speak to this as well 

from the European side—how many laudable proposals fall off the 

table at NIH or any other research facility or funding mechanism 

because the money isn’t there? I remember hearing that one estimate was like three out of four. So we are missing the opportunity 

to find what may be as close to a brass ring as it could be because 

that project and that focus and that research proposal did not get 

funded. If you could speak to that. 

Mr. VRADENBURG. Well, I think the number is a lot greater than 

that. The current payline is in the teens, which means one out of 

six or one out of seven is getting approved, and those are of 

projects that have gone through peer review and been successful. 

And the only reason that it is even that high is that the NIH has 

cut back the amount of those grants so that the numbers, if you 

took the level of grants that were funded several years ago, the 

number of approved grants would be under 10 percent. So we are 

talking about a situation where one in six or seven, perhaps one 

in ten depending on the size of the grant, has currently been approved. And those are peer reviewed grants that are found to have 

been meritorious. 

Your point, Mr. Chairman, one additional point. This is beyond 

a health issue as just pointed out by the Sec on Aging. At our recent Alzheimer’s Disease Summit: The Path to 2025 that we conducted in New York, a member of the Japanese cabinet came to 

speak. And her country is beginning to shift its entire economic 

strategy from one of manufacturing to one of service because they 

are not going to have enough workers at working age populations 

in order to support their manufacturing economy. So over a period 

of years, they are having to shift their entire national economic 

strategy to less labor intensive jobs, jobs that can be performed by 

older individuals and potentially even older individuals from their 

homes. 

So this is an issue of health as Matthew has pointed out dramatically, but it is an economic imperative for countries as their 

age shifts. Western Europe is going through this in spades on how 

to adjust to this. And of course, the entitlement cost spending going 

through the roof, in part because of this, suggests that this is a fiscal issue as well. So it is a health issue. We have not been able 

yet to engage economic ministers and finance ministers in understanding the import of an aging world on the shifts in relative economic strengths of different countries. 

We have seen China change its policy on the one-child policy because it foresees itself running out of workers in 20 to 30 years. 

So they are beginning to adjust their social policies to respond to 

the demographic changes that you just referred to. So this is a 

very, very significant thing for the relative economic power of countries around the world in the coming two to three to four decades. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Weber? 

Mr. WEBER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This question is for the 

panel. Other countries that are involved, engaged alongside of the 

United States, if you will, in this fight? Top three? 

Mr. BAUMGART. I would say France was one of the first countries 

to develop a national plan, and when Mr. Sarkozy was President 

there was a commitment from the topmost levels of government to 

35

actually carry out the plan. I would also say the United Kingdom 

has a fairly robust and increasing research program and a commitment to funding research. So those would be my top two. 

Mr. WEBER. There is not a third one? 

Mr. VRADENBURG. I would add Canada. Although it is not a significant size, they are very actively, very well organized. 

Mr. WEBER. Okay. Yes, ma’am. 

Ms. PFEIFER. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sweden also has 

an extremely well-defined plan for Alzheimer’s. One of her, I would 

say, leading ones in Europe. 

Mr. WEBER. Okay, thank you. You mentioned costs associated 

with Alzheimer’s. Is there a per capita cost that has been demonstrated and nailed down and calculated? What does it cost per 

capita in the United States? What does it cost per capita in Switzerland? What does it cost per capita in France and UK? 

Mr. BAUMGART. So I haven’t actually calculated the per capita 

costs. You could calculate it. The estimates are that the total cost 

of caring for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia in the United 

States this year will be $203 billion. So I haven’t actually done the 

math, but you could do the math from that. 

Mr. VRADENBURG. One of the things that the Alzheimer’s Association did very well, they did a study a few years ago, Mr. Weber, 

in which they looked at the costs to Medicare of a patient with dementia, a beneficiary with dementia and one without dementia. 

And the cost to the Medicare system is three times greater for a 

beneficiary with Alzheimer’s than a beneficiary without Alzheimer’s. And with respect to Medicaid, it is 19. 

Mr. BAUMGART. It is 19. 

Mr. VRADENBURG. 19 times more expensive to Medicaid to have 

a beneficiary with Alzheimer’s than a beneficiary without Alzheimer’s. 

Mr. WEBER. And Dr. Pfeifer, in Switzerland, same question. 

Ms. PFEIFER. Yes. So there are some numbers. The last numbers 

which I saw were 60,000 euros per person per year, so per patient 

per year. So it is a substantial amount of money. 

Mr. WEBER. Can you translate the euros into dollars for me? 

Mr. VRADENBURG. It is about $100,000. 

Mr. WEBER. About $100,000. Okay. What would you say is the 

main focus of the preventive research? Are we looking at brain 

health, circulatory health, neurons? What is the main focus of that 

research? 

Mr. BAUMGART. I think there are a lot of areas of focus. Operating on the principle that what is good for your heart is good for 

your brain, there is a lot of research on physical activity and 

whether that can slow the progression or even prevent the disease, 

if the physical activity is regular and vigorous in middle age. There 

are some studies on diet. In terms of brain health and physical 

health connection, there are smoking studies. There have been 

studies that show that smoking is also bad for your brain. 

Mr. WEBER. As anybody with a brain should know that. 

Mr. BAUMGART. Yes. And so you have a lot of focus on how do 

you make the connection between the physical and the mental. And 

one other area that is key is the connection between diabetes and 

Alzheimer’s. We do know there is a connection. Scientists aren’t 

36

quite sure exactly how the connection works, but we do know that 

you are at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease in later life if you 

have diabetes in mid-life. So that is another area of ongoing research. 

Mr. VRADENBURG. So the primary focus has been around a protein called beta-amyloid, and I believe that there is a cascading effect that occurs with some misfolded proteins that begin to accumulate into beta-amyloid and then into tau and then through inflammation into the death of neurons and synapses. And one of the confounding things here is that there are many people who live very 

healthy and very cognitively active lives well into their 90s who 

have a lot of beta-amyloid in their brain, and indeed a lot with 

beta-amyloid and tau. 

And so what scientists are now focusing on as the key trigger is 

an inflammatory response that builds off of that. So the science is 

looking not just at how to regulate better the beta-amyloid and tau 

buildup in the brain, but also potentially at what is maybe protective, in protecting those people with beta-amyloid and tau not turning into cognitive disabled people. So they are looking both at the 

mechanisms of stopping the bad stuff and promoting the good stuff. 

Mr. WEBER. And Dr. Pfeifer, would you like to weigh in? 

Ms. PFEIFER. No, I think George perfectly explained what is, I 

would say, most advanced belief in what would be the best targets 

to cure, hold or prevent the disease. I think what becomes quite obvious is the basic interaction between the beta-amyloid and tau. So 

maybe we actually have to really tackle both proteins together in 

combination therapies in order to really have the benefit of the momentary drug development. A third aspect comes in. There seems 

to be quite a few, in fact 30 percent of Alzheimer’s patients have 

also some aspects of Parkinson’s. There is another protein, which 

is alpha-synuclein, and this protein seems to be also involved. So 

I think when we are looking forward is really to focus on how are 

these different elements working together, and it seems more and 

more important that you think about combinational therapies not 

just monotherapies. 

And maybe a last aspect, of course I am referring to my past. I 

was actually doing the first Alzheimer’s study with food, medical 

food, and I do believe that the aspect of utilizing beneficial foods 

could be strengthened, because I am absolutely convinced that prevention could also come from the food area. And this is maybe an 

area which we have a bit neglected in the past. 

Mr. WEBER. Okay, thank you. That is it, Mr. Chairman, I am 

going to head for vote. 

Mr. SMITH. We are actually out of time. And I apologize, but I 

do have just one final comment, two comments I want to make. 

One, Mr. Vradenburg, your thought of more parliamentarians 

connecting, I think, is a great one. I am the co-chairman of the Helsinki Commission, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in 

Europe, and we have resolutions and meetings three times a year. 

The big one is July. As a result, I think your recommendation is 

a good one, I plan on, I will offer a resolution to try to get each 

of the parliamentarians, and usually about 300 show up from 57 

countries so it is not insignificant, to take back this urgent call, 

37

and by then we will have the G–8 summit, hopefully a very strong 

plan of action in a cascading way to keep building out this need. 

I went back and looked at a bill that I had introduced working 

very closely with the Alzheimer’s Association and with you, George, 

as well, called the Ronald Reagan Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Act of 

2005. And the number that we had in there for NIH was $1.4 billion. And unfortunately, in real dollars we have actually gone down 

from where it was then. So it is maybe not exactly, but in no way 

has it approximated the need that exists in marrying up the resources to make sure. 

And your point, Mr. Vradenburg, about one out of six, it may be 

even worse, peer reviewed proposals dropping off the table and not 

getting funded, that is unconscionable, frankly. So we need to do 

more. We hope to do more. As you know, Maxine Waters and I, we 

are co-chairs of the caucus. Ed Markey who was the co-chair for 

years is now over on the Senate side doing his good work there. 

So this hearing launches into G–8, launches into what do we do 

as a Congress, and hopefully like combating HIV/AIDS pandemic, 

we will come out of the blocks as never before to tackle and combat 

and hopefully eradicate this horrible disease, or at least make serious strides in early onset and dealing with the issue. So thank you 

so very much. Do you have any final comments? 

Mr. VRADENBURG. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for 

your leadership in this space and I look forward to working with 

you both domestically and internationally on this issue. 

Mr. BAUMGART. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you so much. Dr. Pfeifer, thank you so 

much——

Ms. PFEIFER. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH [continuing]. For coming in from the continent of Europe. 

Let me just finally also say before I, we will take everything you 

have said, your testimonies are outstanding. We will get them to 

Secretary Sebelius and all the others at HHS with a letter signed 

in a bipartisan way with my ranking member, and ask them to 

really seriously look—I know you have other avenues to get 

through to them, but let them know that we are watching as well 

and we are advocates, as are you. But thank you so much. The 

hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:12 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

(39)

A P P E N D I X 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

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85645n.eps

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING NOTICE 

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

WASHINGTON, DC 20515-6128 

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations 

Christopher H, Smith (R-NJ), Chairman 

November 20,2013 

TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN hearing of the Committee on Foreign 

Affairs, to be held by the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and 

International Organizations in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building (and available live on 

the Committee website at www.foreignatTairs,hQuse~y'): 

DATE: 

TiME: 

SUBJECT: 

WITNESSES: 

Thursday, November 21,2013 

10:15 a.m 

The Global Challenge of Alzheimer's: The G-8 Dementia Summit and Beyond 

Andrea Pfeifer, PhD. 

Chief Executive Officer 

AC Immune 

(AppearinK via videvGOI!ferencc) 

Mr. George Vradenburg 

Chairman and Founder 

USAgainstAlzheimer's 

Mr. Matthew Baumgart 

Senior Director of Public Policy 

Alzheimer's Association 

By Direction of the Chairman 
41

f


85645m.eps

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

MINUTES OF SUBCOMMITIEE ON Africa, Globa/Health, GlohnfHmlUmR;g/JfsJ.(llllllntematiOlralOl'gauiz.afiolls HEARING 

Dny_---"-T-.C1z'-'-f1"-r"'sd"'a"'I'--' __ "Date November 21,2013 Room 2172 RIIl,bfll'l1 HOR 

Starting Time lO·15am EnoingTime 11:11a.1J1. 

Recesses !~ ii~ ~I ( __ 10 __ )( __ 10 __ l ( __ Io~ ( __ (0 __ ) L-(o __ ) ( __ 10 ~ 

.Presiding Member(s) 

Rep. Clu'is Smllh 

Clleck all oflltefolloH'ing (lIa( apply: 

Ollen Session IZl Kx:ecutivc (closed) Se.'isiol1 0 Televised [(] 

'J'l'rLE 01<' HEARING: 

Electronically R<cord~taJled) [{] 

Stenogmpltlc Record /..{J 

l1te Global ChalleJlge of Alzheimer's: 111e G-8 Dell/elltla Summit (1/1(/ Beyond 

SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: 

Rep. Ralldy Weber, Rep. Ami Bem 

NON~SUBCOMMITTF:F'. MF.MIlF.Il.S PIl.~:S~;NT: (Mark wllh an • iflhey are 1101 members vffilll commit/ee.) 

HF:ARING WITNESSES: Same as meeting noti« .Uael'ed1 Yo., 0 No 0 

(1/ 11110 JJJ please list below and ;nclude title, agency, departmenf, OJ' oJ'gallizalron) 

STATEI\IENTS FOR TIlE RECORD: (List ((11)' slalemeJ1ls submiltedjor Ihe record) 

Prep(lred st(ltemellt.fi·olll11ep. M(lxine W(liers 

l'll\m SCHEDULED TO Rt;CONVENE ___ _ 

or 

T1MF. ADJOLJRNF.J) 11:11 (t.m. 

iL~1"\4 \) . ~--k,? k~_ SUbcon,ftllittde Staff Dio'eclor 
42

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, 

A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, AND CHAIRMAN, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS


85645d-1.eps
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85645d-2.eps

The first G-S Dementia Summit will be held on December II'h in the United Kingdom. 

The purpose of the summit is to bring health ministers, researchers, physicians, industry leaders, 

and others together to discuss how they can coordinate efforts and shape an effective 

international solution to dementia. 

The World Health Organization estimates that more than half of global dementia cases 

are in low- and middle-income countries. The Congressional Research Service projected that by 

2050, there will be S.7 million people with dementia in Africa, 16. I million people with 

dementia in Latin America, 29.2 million people with dementia in South/Southeast Asia, and 30.S 

million people with dementia in East Asia. 

Alzheimer's disease and other dementias present special challenges in low- and middleincome countries. In high-income countries, institutions like nursing homes provide care for 

many of the individuals who are suffering from dementia, and programs like Medicare, 

Medicaid, and social services for seniors provide financial support to families struggling to care 

for an affected loved one. However, in most low- and middle-income countries, public medical 

and social services for people with dementia are rare. Consequently, care for individuals with 

dementia in these countries is predominantly the responsibility of their families. 

Countries that have been heavily impacted by HIVI AIDS face additional challenges in 

dealing with dementia. Millions of children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, and 

grandparents play an important role in raising many of these children. According to UNAIDS, 

nearly 17 million children worldwide have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS, and almost 90 

percent of them live in Africa UNAIDS further estimates that, in some countries, more than half 

of all children who lost a parent to HIV/AIDS are being cared for by a grandparent. The 

difficulties for families and communities could be tremendous if some of these grandparents who 

are caring for their grandchildren begin to develop dementia and need care themselves. 

These are just a few of the many challenges that increasing rates of Alzheimer's and 

dementia could pose to the international community. I hope that the G-8 Dementia Summit will 

give the international community an opportunity to discuss these challenges and begin to develop 

comprehensive strategies to address them. I support the participation of US. officials in the 

Summit, and I look forward to hearing their report on the Summit's achievements. 

Once again, I thank my colleah'lles, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Bass, for 

allowing me to participate in this hearing, and I look forward to discussing the G-8 Dementia 

Summit with them and working to alleviate the global burden of Alzheimer's disease and 

dementia. 

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