Brain Awareness Week, March 15-21, 2021, is part of a global campaign to foster public enthusiasm and support for brain science and its impact on our everyday lives.
In recent decades, America’s biopharmaceutical ecosystem has produced life-changing treatments for a wide range of diseases, including cancer, HIV and asthma. However, one area has remained a stubborn outlier in the field of medical research: the human brain.
Diseases that affect the central nervous system (CNS) take a tremendous toll on individuals and society as a whole. As populations age, neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease have erupted as an urgent threat to public health. Alzheimer’s is currently the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Experts predict that if no treatment is discovered, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s could more than double by 2050, while costs could skyrocket to more than $1 trillion each year. Additionally, nearly one in five U.S. adults was living with a mental illness before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and there has been an upsurge in reported issues and symptoms since March 2020. Further, as 20% of U.S. adults live with chronic pain, one of the leading drivers of health care costs and disability, there is an urgent need for new treatment options.