Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva will invest $20 million into U.K. clinical trials and $1 million into U.K. dementia research. Teva said it will benefit from the NIHR's translational research infrastructure and its ability to efficiently set up and deliver world-leading health research studies.

Teva intends to invest in a three-year dementia research program, providing funding of up to $1 million for early stage work in U.K. academic and medical centers. This work will be focused on understanding targets, mechanisms and new approaches to treatment of different causes and types of dementia. The NIHR Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure (NOCRI) will facilitate Teva's access to the NIHR Biomedical Research Centers and Units in Dementia and the NIHR Translational Research Collaboration in Dementia.

NOCRI has created a novel model that streamlines the approach to undertaking clinical development in the U.K. The new model provides a single point of entry into the U.K. healthcare system that cuts out the inherent complexities and inefficiencies of dealing with many and varied stakeholders within the combined medical and academic network on an individual and center-by-center basis.

This agreement enables Teva to benefit from the NIHR's new translational research infrastructure, its ability to set up and deliver studies and access to well-characterized cohorts of patients from within the National Health Service.

The global cost of managing dementia currently exceeds $604 billion per year—approximately equivalent to the total GDP of Switzerland. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people living with dementia is set to reach 115 million in less than 40 years.