DHAKA: Progress on new research and treatments for dementia has been "achingly slow", an expert has said.

Dr Dennis Gillings, the recently appointed global dementia envoy, said the pledge by G8 countries to develop a cure or treatment by 2025 was "impossible" without better incentives for investment.

He also called for faster and cheaper clinical trials for drugs.

Around 800,000 people in the UK - and 44 million globally - have dementia.

'Special case'

Six months since the UK hosted a G8 summit on dementia, the prime minister is speaking at a follow-up event in central London where he will commit to accelerating progress on dementia drugs, reports BBC.

Experts and health officials from other G8 countries are expected to attend.

"Just as the world came together in the fight against HIV/AIDS, we need to free up regulation so that we can test ground-breaking new drugs", said Dr Gillings, who was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron to be the global leader on dementia.

"The amount of scrutiny by regulators is considerable, but there probably needs to be a special case made for dementia by regulators so they can help move things through more quickly... Simplify the clinical trials process or simplify the sort of data being demanded. This happened with HIV in the mid-80s."

Dr Gillings added that a major barrier to research was the "ratio of risk to reward" facing pharmaceutical companies investing in dementia.

Only three out of 104 dementia drugs assessed in clinical trials since 1998 have received regulatory approval.

Globally, research and development losses in dementia since then have reached around $50bn (£29bn).

BDST: 1038 HRS, JUN 19, 2014