Health secretary leads roundtable in bid to find cure for motor neurone disease

As reported by The Independent, Steve Barclay sat down with researchers, charities and patients

The health secretary has met leading academics in a bid to speed up the process of finding a cure for motor neurone disease (MND). Steve Barclay sat down with researchers, charities and patients at a roundtable on Thursday which identified how scientists, the government and charities can work together to find a successful treatment for the debilitating condition.

The NHS app will also be updated on Friday to make it easier for people to use it to view and take part in MND and other health research, including studies that test new treatments using interviews and surveys.

The disease causes most sufferers to slowly lose the ability to walk, dress, write, speak, swallow, and breathe – and their life span is shortened.

The government says that since it cut red tape in December 2022, £29.5m of the £50m pot was immediately injected through specialist research centres so NHS patients could benefit from cutting-edge treatment and medicines. The roundtable also discussed how an extra £2m which may be in the pipeline could be used to help understand the condition’s underlying causes so treatments can be developed more quickly.

Mr Barclay said: “Motor neurone disease can have a devastating impact on people’s lives, and I’m working with leading researchers to accelerate research and help find a cure as soon as we can.

“We are making sure funding gets to researchers as quickly as possible. I encourage people in England to sign up to research via the NHS App and join our ever-growing UK-wide register Be Part of Research.”