Senate panel advances plan to create Texas Dementia Prevention and Research Institute, sends constitutional amendment to ballot

The Texas Senate Finance Committee on May 1 advanced a plan to create the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and to send a companion constitutional amendment to voters that would transfer $3 billion from General Revenue to a new dementia research fund.

The committee adopted committee substitutes for Senate Bill 5 and Senate Joint Resolution 3 and, after a quorum was established, voted 8-0 to report both measures to the full Senate. The substitutes would establish DPRIT, set a $300 million per-fiscal-year spending cap (with unexpended balances to carry forward), authorize deposit of investment earnings and patent royalties into General Revenue, and require peer review, conflict-of-interest rules, annual audits and legislative reports.

Why it matters: supporters said state-backed, sustained grant funding modeled on the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) could accelerate prevention, diagnostics and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias while attracting researchers and biotech investment to the state. Opponents and some members pressed for a larger share of funding dedicated to prevention research.

Senator Jane Nelson, secretary of state and the author of the CPRIT legislation, told the committee that the CPRIT model produced “life-changing results” and urged lawmakers that Texas could repeat that success for dementia research. “We’re close,” Nelson said, describing recent scientific advances and the opportunity to accelerate them through sustained state funding.

Several clinicians and research leaders testified in support of the bill, saying…