NEWSLETTER January 2010
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NEWSLETTER January 2010 Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Highlights in this Editorial Portugal, Scotland and issue Sweden. January 1 January 2010: Spanish marked the At Alzheimer Europe we Presidency of EU 4 start of the have been busy continuing commences Spanish EU to develop our website and 1 January 2010: Europe Presidency, the e-shop has been launches €20 million which has launched, making it possible academic-industry 3 declared one of its aims as to purchase Alzheimer collaboration on being to “foster a Europe of Europe publications online. Alzheimer’s disease rights and freedoms, a In addition, we have Europe for all citizens”. To 11 January 2010: updated the national Discussions commence realise this aim, the Spanish dementia plans section and on a Cyprus Strategic 9 Presidency has outlined the ethics section of our Plan for Alzheimer’s various initiatives which we website. disease report on in this newsletter. January also saw the launch 14 January 2010: It is greatly encouraging to of two Commission financed Implementation of the 6 hear this month that Cyprus projects, the PharmaCog English Dementia strategy has started discussions on and RightTimePlaceCare assessed the development of a projects in which Alzheimer Strategic Plan for Europe has been asked to Alzheimer’s disease. collaborate. We report in more detail on both in this At the same time, the newsletter. necessity for a strong implementation programme We are of course also of any such plan is delighted that this newsletter highlighted by the findings is the first of 2010 which we from the National Audit are able to produce thanks Office in the UK which has to the operational grant called for urgent action to provided by the European ensure that the English Commission through the Strategy is implemented public health programme of Table of contents effectively. The appointment the European Union. Editorial....................................... 1 of Professor Alistair Burns Finally, I would like to take Alzheimer Europe .......................... 2 as the Director for the English Dementia Strategy this opportunity to wish Neil Alzheimer Europe Networking .......... 3 could not be more timely Hunt, who has left his Pharmacog................................... 3 and we wish him well in his position of Chief Executive European developments.................. 4 task. of the Alzheimer’s Society, every success in the future. Policy Watch................................. 6 Alzheimer Europe’s member Neil, a Board member of Members’ News............................. 8 organisations have been Alzheimer Europe, has been Members’ forthcoming events ........ 11 busy during January. highly supportive of Following a comprehensive Alzheimer Europe’s work. Science Watch ............................ 11 survey, the Alzheimer’s Dementia in Society ..................... 16 Society (UK) has been New resources and publications ..... 16 raising awareness of the Jean Georges concerns people have for AE Calendar ............................... 18 Executive Director standards of care. We also Future Conferences...................... 18 bring news from our members in Belgium, Page 1 of 18 Newsletter: January 2010 systems, advocacy and informal caregiver Alzheimer Europe support systems for patients/consumers with dementia and intersectorial communication. 1 January 2010: Alzheimer Europe starts year with operating grant from A European survey will assess the factors the European Commission influencing the time of admission to long-term institutional nursing care facilities, investigate The 2010 Work Plan of Alzheimer living conditions and gather clinical data of Europe has received significant patients/consumers with dementia and their financial support (EUR 250,000) informal caregivers in long-term formal from the public health programme professional home care and institutional of the European Union and the organisation will nursing care facilities, and the related be able to carry out the following activities in economic impact. 2010 thanks to this support: Consecutively best practice strategies will be • the development of a European developed for intersectorial arrangements Dementia Ethics Network with a focus needed to improve the effectiveness and on the ethics of dementia research efficiency of integrated health care in European and assistive technologies, dementia care systems, and recommendations • the continuation of its legal rights for best practice models or interventions in project which will result in national long-term care reports on the guardianship systems facilities. in the Member States of the European Apart from the Union, University of • a survey on the involvement of people Witten/Herdecke with dementia in the activities, (Germany), the campaigning and decision making following centres will bodies of its member organisations, be involved in the three year project: • the further development of a • Maastricht University (Netherlands), European Dementia Observatory and • Lund University (Sweden), the communication on relevant policy and scientific developments in the • University of Manchester (United field of dementia, Kingdom), • the organisation of the 20th Alzheimer • University of Turku (Finland), Europe Conference in Luxembourg • University of Tartu (Estonia), from 30 September to 2 October 2010. • Gerontôpole of the University of Finally, the association will also be able to deal Toulouse (France) and with a number of organisational issues such as • Fundació Privada Clinic per la the development of a new strategic plan and a Recerca Biomedica (Spain). financial diversification strategy, an outreach programme towards Alzheimer associations not Jean Georges attended the launch meeting of currently members of the organisation and the the project on 19 January 2010 in Brussels. development of strategic partnerships with 29 January 2010: Alzheimer Europe other associations active in the field. launches e-shop facility on website 19 January 2010: Alzheimer Europe Since the launch of the completely revised starts involvement on website in October 2009, Alzheimer Europe RightTimePlaceCare project has continued its development. Alzheimer Europe was asked to In January an e-shop facility was launched, participate in an advisory enabling visitors to purchase Alzheimer Europe capacity in a European project publications online, the policy in practice entitled RightTimePlaceCare section was updated to include new information coordinated by the University of th on the status of national dementia plans in Witten/Herdecke and financed under the 7 Cyprus as well as Switzerland and members of Framework Programme of the European Union. the Steering Committee of the European The project will describe and analyse the Dementia Ethics Network were identified and European health, social care and welfare included on the website. Page 2 of 18 Newsletter: January 2010 Alzheimer Europe Networking On 7 January (London, UK) Jean participated in the launch of the PharmaCog project. On 7 January (London, UK) Jean met for an exchange with AE Chair Maurice O’Connell. On 11 January (London, UK) Jean attended the EMEA workshop on “New developments in dementia of Alzheimer’s type”. On 12 January (Brussels, Belgium) Annette attended the Health Consumer Powerhouse meeting in the European Parliament: "How to Cure the EU Patient Information Gap". On 12 January (Brussels, Belgium) Annette followed Commissioner-designate Viviane Reding’s hearing in the European Parliament. On 18 January (Luxembourg, Luxembourg) Jean met with Alain Tapp from the Luxembourg Alzheimer’s association to discuss the preparations of the 2010 Conference in Luxembourg. On 19 January (Brussels, Belgium) Jean attended the launch meeting of the RightTimePlaceCare project. On 20 January (Brussels, Belgium) Annette and Jean met Brendan Barnes, EFPIA Director for Multilateral Issues and Health Policy to discuss EU developments in AD. Pharmacog Visit the newly launched e-shop PharmaCog is a European project funded by on the publications section of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a new and the Alzheimer Europe website unique partnership between the European on: www.alzheimer-europe.org Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. Due to the importance of this project, we will dedicate a special section of our newsletter to developments in this project. 1 January 2010: Europe launches EUR 20 million academic-industry collaboration to tackle drug discovery in Alzheimer’s disease PharmaCog short for “Prediction of cognitive properties of new drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases in early clinical development” a cross party project, co- coordinated by GlaxoSmithKline R&D and the Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France, started its activities on 1 January 2010 thanks to significant funding (EUR 20.2 million) from the Innovative Medicines Initiative. Its launch marks the start of the most ambitious European project for tackling bottlenecks in Alzheimer's disease research and drug discovery, This hugely ambitious project brings together top scientists from 12 academic institutions, 11 global pharmaceutical companies , 5 small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) with patient representation from Alzeimer Europe. It is hoped that by the end of this 5-year project, PharmaCog will have Page 3 of 18 Newsletter: January 2010 a) validated the tools necessary to streamline 29. Université de Lille 2 (France). AD drug discovery and accelerate effective medicine to patients, Alzheimer Europe