2014 Epilepsy Funding update: We’re not there yet

Epilepsy Funding Update

It’s time for the annual epilepsy funding update. Each year I take a look at the funding going toward Epilepsy research. I am pleased to see that it is steadily increasing. However, by comparison Epilepsy is severely lagging behind. Especially when compared to disease states with similar or less devastating prevalence and mortality statistics.

Epilepsy

2014 Funding: $158 Million

HIV and AIDS

2014 Funding: $3,122 Million

Breast Cancer

2014 Funding: $808 Million

Just for kicks

I thought I would throw in a few other disease states that continue to surpass epilepsy. This will give you a sense of how important the funding is to making headway in a disease state.

Diabetes 1067 M
Obesity 843 M
Alzheimers 562 M
Alcoholism 460 M
Stroke 313 M
Autism 192M
Head injury 167

Less Than

Here are a few disease states that receive less funding dollars than epilepsy. It’s interesting to see where the neuro diseases fall on the spectrum.

Pick’s Disease $2 M
Batten’s Disease $4 M
Tourette’s Syndrome $6 M
Rhett Syndrome $13 M
Dystonia $14 M
Migranes $18 M

This information is all publicly available on the NIH Categorical Spending report. I hope you found this update helpful.

Jessica K. Smith Founder and CEO; Executive Director

Jessica Keenan Smith is a patient advocate and epilepsy community leader with more than 15 years of experience. As Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy and Executive Director of ASENT she bridges the gap between the scientific and patient communities, with a particular focus on the needs of the epilepsies. Jessica Keenan Smith is Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy, an award winning online resource for people affected by epilepsy to share stories and access in-depth information on the disease. Since 2009, Living Well With Epilepsy (https://livingwellwithepilepsy.com) has been featured in Forbes, Wired, NBC, NPR and the cover story of Epilepsy Advocate Magazine and has partnered with companies such as UCB, Lundbeck, Sunovion, Eisai, and more. Ms. Smith is also the Executive Director of the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics (ASENT) (https://asent.org), an organization that brings together leaders from industry, academia, government and advocacy who are engaged in bringing drugs and devices to market across all neurologic disease states. In this role she is responsible for leading a successful scientific journal and annual scientific conference with speakers from all over the world.

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