One year ago, I introduced a bill to fight Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias – the costliest disease in America and a heartbreaking reality for too many families. Today, my “Ensuring Useful Research Expenditures is Key for Alzheimer’s Act,” or “EUREKA,” has the support of nearly two-thirds of the Senate and 78 organizations, including the Alzheimer’s Association, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, and the MIND Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The fight against Alzheimer’s spans both political party and geography. During World Alzheimer’s Month, we are reminded that dementia is not just a national problem but an international one. It currently affects an estimated 47 million people around the world.

Prizes for Success

With “EUREKA,” the aim is to reach milestones in dementia prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Specifically, prize competitions established under the act would help drive innovation and bring the best minds together in private-public partnerships. The bill would not disrupt current research or ask taxpayers to give more of their money to Washington. With prizes, we pay only for success.

Prize competitions have a record of success, solving some of the world’s most difficult problems. In the early 1700s, the British government offered a prize for calculating longitude at sea in the wake of serious navigation challenges. John Harrison, a clockmaker, created a sea watch that allowed sailors to keep accurate time and thus determine longitude, saving countless lives. In the early 1900s, a prize was offered for the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris. American Charles Lindbergh succeeded with his Spirit of St. Louis. More recent competitions, spearheaded by the nonprofit XPrize Foundation, have led to new technology in spaceflight and oil spill cleanup.

An Opportunity to Save Lives and Money

I believe prize competitions can bring us closer to an Alzheimer’s cure. This is a disease affecting more than five million Americans and accounting for one in five Medicare dollars. Without a breakthrough, those numbers are expected to rise. By 2050, the United States could be spending more than $1 trillion on Alzheimer’s, and nearly 14 million Americans could be affected. Internationally, more than 130 million people could have dementia in less than four decades.

Congress has a prime opportunity to help change the trajectory of these rising numbers and costs. A package of legislative measures has been developed to promote groundbreaking medical research and the faster delivery of more effective drugs to patients. My “EUREKA” bill is a perfect fit for the Senate version of this package, which has already passed the House as the “21st Century Cures Act.” I hope it can be enacted before the end of the year.

I am encouraged by the work that has already been done to meet medical challenges and offer a better future for Americans facing complex health issues. America is home to some of the brightest minds in the world. We can reverse Alzheimer’s devastating trend if we act now with smart strategies to unleash the power of U.S. innovation and competition. The impact of Alzheimer’s on human suffering is too great to ignore. Working together, we can create a future in which children will learn about Alzheimer’s in a history textbook rather than in a health class.