I'll begin.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to the committee for receiving us today.
The brain is the most vital and complex organ in the human body, and it is the source of all human experience and understanding. There are more than 1,000 brain disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, brain tumours, chronic pain, depression, stroke, addiction, and spinal cord injuries. It is important to remember that there are more than 1,000 conditions, and so while we hear about certain conditions because they're more prevalent, there are in fact a range of disorders. We also hear about these disorders as separate entities, and it's further important to recognize that brain disorders encompass both neurological and psychiatric conditions.
Some brain diseases respond to treatment, but of course, there are no cures at the present time. People with a brain disorder may live for a long time with their condition. With some conditions, a person may slowly degenerate and lose function before dying.
Brain Canada is a national charitable organization. Our goal is to fund research aimed at unlocking the mystery of the brain and developing diagnostics, treatments, and ultimately, cures for brain disorders. We seek to maximize current investments in research, and to make future investments more efficient and more focused on outcomes that will benefit patients.
On March 15, 2006, Brain Canada's predecessor, NeuroScience Canada, published “The Case for Canada's Increased Investment in Neuroscience Research”. NeuroScience Canada made the case that there are commonalities across brain disorders, and that, therefore, brain disorders should be considered as a group.
We further argued that there has not been a comprehensive study on the burden of this disease grouping, which would take into account both the range of disorders and the disability costs associated with brain disorders. Previous data collected focused on individual diseases, and on mortality and hospitalization rates. It did not include suffering or disability that does not result in death or hospitalization, nor lost productivity and psychosocial costs to patients, families, and their caregivers.
When direct costs and costs linked to disability are combined, the economic and human burden is estimated at $60 billion, or about 38% of the total burden of disease. This is a greater burden than that of cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. NeuroScience Canada argued that we need to better understand the true burden of brain disease. We need to raise awareness about these disorders in order to stimulate private and public investments in brain research, and we need to increase investments in research in a focused, strategic manner, and at a ratio that is proportionate to the burden of disease.
I'm very pleased to be able to say that since “The Case” was published, we have made progress in all three areas. First, NeuroScience Canada provided the impetus and rationale for the founding of Neurological Health Charities Canada. The concept of health charities coming together was aligned with “The Case” document, which said that if we can bring diseases together around commonalities, so too should disease-based organizations seek a common purpose in working together.
“The Case” and the efforts of NHCC led the government, on October 9, 2009, to commit a total of $15 million to a major study on neurological diseases. It is important to recognize that this study focuses on certain conditions and does not address mental health conditions.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada, and the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health have contributed to our understanding of mental illness, but we still need to consolidate both neurological and mental illness in our understanding of the total impact of brain disorders.
Second, NeuroScience Canada piloted a team grant model called the brain repair program, which demonstrated that funding collaborative research projects involving the best researchers across diverse disciplines can produce breakthrough thinking, which has an immediate application to how we diagnose, treat, and cure brain disorders. The NeuroScience Canada model drew on the “one system” approach to the brain, and focused on commonalities and underlying mechanisms across a range of disorders.
Five teams were funded from 2004 to 2010. Each team received $1.5 million over three years, and each team had a breakthrough discovery every year of their grant.
Finally, in March and June of 2011, the Government of Canada committed to matching up to $100 million raised by Brain Canada from non-governmental sources to establish the Canada brain research fund.
This will be the largest single investment in brain research ever made in Canada. The fund will be started by Brain Canada, and we will support a three-prong research program, which was developed with the Canadian Association for Neuroscience. The fund will compose team grants modelled after the brain repair program, training fellowships, and operating support for national technology platforms. Brain Canada encourages the Government of Canada as it fulfills this commitment.
The fund will maximize the return on investments in infrastructure and salaries already made by government and private donors by increasing operating funding. The fund will focus our research investment on the brain as one complex system and not just a collection of diseases, and invest in commonalities where a single breakthrough has the potential to create therapies for multiple conditions.
The fund will better coordinate existing efforts to spur discovery, and create resources and a toolkit for all neuroscientists to use.
Finally, the fund will excite the public around one unifying vision for the brain, and encourage all the key players to work together—scientists, business and philanthropic leadership, and the voluntary sector. The result will be more efficient, effective use of public funding, and a leverage effect to stimulate private investment in brain research.
Thank you.