Minister calling for drug trials for dementia patients

The Government’s adviser for dementia has suggested that thousands of sufferers of the condition should be offered free drug trials, an action which could become a credible method of helping to uncover a treatment for the condition. The development comes after Dr Dennis Gillings suggested that society needs to act on behalf of those with …

The Government’s adviser for dementia has suggested that thousands of sufferers of the condition should be offered free drug trials, an action which could become a credible method of helping to uncover a treatment for the condition.

The development comes after Dr Dennis Gillings suggested that society needs to act on behalf of those with dementia and dramatically enhance the speed of research to secure a breakthrough. With just ten clinical trials into dementia running for potential treatments, compared to 340 in cancer, it is clear that something needs to be done to help those reliant on nursing care facilities across the country.

Dr Gillings said that research into effective medicines was too slow and involved far too few patients, adding that we can learn a lot from how society responded to HIV and how treatments were developed some 10 years quicker than previously thought.

Just this month, scientists developed a form of blood test which can forecast forms of dementia up to three years in advance, with 90 per cent accuracy.

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