Opportunities for businesses, foundations and stakeholders

There is a shared interest in the discovery and advancement of novel therapeutic interventions for dementia and in particular, in interventions that address disease progression. The history of drug development suggests that the approach to discovery can be either biochemically target-based or phenotypic. There are opportunities and challenges for dementia in both of these approaches. The creation of an accessible big data resource for dementia could provide a “base camp” to support a range of efforts including opportunities around disease categorisation, therapies for vascular dementia, disease modifying drugs, symptomatic therapies, and preventive and risk-modifying strategies. Bringing broad and deep data together can provide opportunities to provide a better understanding of disease categories and progression that will allow for more focused efforts around cardiovascular medicines and symptomatic treatments. Inclusion of data on exposures and risk factors will allow for preventive therapies and nonpharmaceutical approaches to risk factor modification. Better accounting of the full range costs of dementia will clarify the rate of return on new interventions and spur investment in research and discovery.