New dementia drugs: patients to pay privately or face NHS postcode lottery

As advanced remedies emerge, the chief executive of Alzheimer's Research UK warns sufferers could miss out as the health service struggles to cope

Groundbreaking new dementia drugs are likely to be the preserve of the rich while NHS patients will be subject to a massive postcode lottery" when they become available for the first time in the UK, according to the co-chair of the government's national mission to tackle the condition.

Amid multiple scientific and pharmaceutical breakthroughs - the latest of which, donanemab, is to have its full clinical trial results published at a conference in the Netherlands on Monday - more research funding and the establishment of a dedicated government taskforce, it should be a promising time for tackling the disease that affects more than 850,000 people in Britain.