Drugmakers, UK start $100M venture fund to speed creation of drugs for Alzheimer's, dementia

Major drugmakers, the British government and the charity Alzheimer's Research UK are pooling more than $100 million to create a global fund to accelerate efforts to find a treatment or even a cure for the mind-robbing disease in a decade.

The new Dementia Discovery Fund will function like a venture capital fund. It will identify promising laboratory discoveries in Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, then give small biotech companies money needed to begin testing in patients.

The fund is being announced Tuesday in Geneva at the World Health Organization's first conference on dementia.

Initial funders include Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Biogen Idec, drugmakers all doing research on dementia.

Dementia affects about 47 million people and costs the global economy more than $604 billion annually.