Čes. slov. farm. 2015, 64(1):25-30 | DOI: 10.36290/csf.2015.005

Alzheimer's disease: cost cuts call for novel drugs development and national strategy

Petra Marešová^1,*, Blanka Klímová¹, Kamil Kuča²

¹ University of Hradec Králové, Faculty of Informatics and Management, Department of Economics, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

² University of Hradec Králové, Center for Basic and Applied Research, University Hospital Hradec Králové, Biomedical Research Center, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Mental health affects the quality of life for a large number of individuals and family members. Currently, globally costs for people with dementia amount to more than 1% of gross domestic product (GDP). In the future, the growth of expenditure is expected with regard to the fact that the population of developed countries is aging and the dementia is closely associated with increasing age. It is evident that governments have to allocate adequate financial, material and human resources to address a health problem on this scale. The purpose of this article is to explore the current state of treatment and care of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD), analyze direct and indirect health care costs resulting from this disease. In addition, the authors of this article draw attention to the implementation of astrategic plan which would handle all the aspects of AD, including the research of drugs development since nowadays there are not still many drugs which would improve AD patients' state, particularly in the early phases, as well as there does not exist any well-functioning national strategic plan in the Czech Republic which would bring a radical improvement in reducing the effects of AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; costs; treatment; strategic plan

Grants and funding:

This research was supported by the project Excellence 2015 and internal research "Economic and managerial aspects of processes in biomedicine" (University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Informatics and Management).

Received: February 28, 2015; Accepted: April 7, 2015; Published: January 1, 2015  Show citation