The FINANCIAL -- Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, together with its collaborator on the Alzheimer’s Immunotherapy Program, Pfizer, and the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back Alzheimer’s Initiative today introduced the Alzheimer’s Challenge 2012 at the Care Innovations Summit in Washington, D.C. The Alzheimer’s Challenge 2012 calls for inventive concepts to help improve the diagnostic identification and tracking of Alzheimer’s disease,according to Johnson & Johnson.

Specifically, the Challenge seeks the development of simple, cost-effective, consistent tools that could be easily used to assess memory, mood, thinking and activity level over time to help improve diagnosis and monitoring of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Today, easy to use, reliable, objective and cost-efficient methods to track and monitor Alzheimer’s disease -- which is not a normal part of aging -- remain an unmet need. The Alzheimer’s Challenge 2012 supports the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services call to harness new thinking to deliver better care and better health at lower cost and provides an entrepreneurial springboard to harness new thinking and approaches to improve Alzheimer’s care.

The Alzheimer’s Challenge 2012 includes awards totaling $300,000. This incorporates $25,000 to five finalists and $175,000 to one winner of the Challenge.

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