World's Top Diabetes Scientists Launch First-Ever International Alliance to Combat Growing "Tsunami" of Diabetes

Scientists Stress Urgent Need for Global Leadership, Research Funds

Seattle – More than 100 of the world's foremost diabetes scientists today issued a "Seattle Diabetes Declaration," vowing to take a leadership role to tackle the "growing 'tsunami' of diabetes" that, if left unchecked, will have devastating global consequences - social and economic - within the next few decades when one out of every three persons globally will be at risk to develop diabetes.

The scientists from 20 countries and six continents gathered in Seattle to attend the Warren G. Magnuson Congress for a Global Diabetes Alliance, convened by Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute (PNDRI). The Congress was named for long-time U.S. Senator Warren G. Magnuson, a co-founder of PNDRI, who espoused the forming of nonpartisan alliances as a way to solve some of society's most intractable problems. Sen. Magnuson died of complications from diabetes in 1989.

"We have assembled in Seattle to form an international diabetes alliance that will develop powerful and unprecedented research projects - with direct links from research into improved practice - and to seek the funding support required for their implementation," reads the Declaration. "Our objective is to forge the strongest possible response to the growing 'tsunami' of diabetes that is taking the lives of millions each year and threatens the well-being of hundreds of millions more in terms of death, disability, economic costs of increased healthcare and reduced productivity, creating the risks of increased social and economic instability."

"The need for an international, collaborative alliance focused on clinical research to help curb the disease could not be more urgent," said Dr. Paul Robertson, incoming president-elect of Science and Medicine for the American Diabetes Association and PNRI president and scientific director. "There's a huge need to look at populations who haven't traditionally been included in research such as the poor, minority, indigenous and underserved populations who are hit hardest by the disease. Diabetes has been long perceived as a disease of affluence. However, diabetes is spreading most rapidly in poorer communities."

Seven out of the top 10 countries with the largest diabetic populations are located in the developing world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Countries such as India and China with the largest populations of people with diabetes are experiencing rapid increases in the prevalence of the disease. Currently, 31 million people in India and 20 million people in China have diabetes. By 2030 these numbers are projected to jump to 79 million people in India and 42 million people in China.

During the Congress, the scientists met in small breakout groups to begin to outline a collaborative, multidisciplinary scientific research agenda to focus on the prevention, treatment and cure of diabetes specifically in underserved populations. The groups then reassembled to develop an overall, international research plan. One of the alliance's goals will be to present this plan to private foundations, governments and others to fund the research.

Using the Seattle Diabetes Declaration as a platform, the group appointed a planning team to guide formation of the Global Diabetes Alliance.

About the Warren G. Magnuson Congress for a Global Diabetes Alliance

The Congress is named after the late U.S. Senator Warren G. Magnuson, who represented Washington State in the U.S. Senate longer than anyone else in history. Throughout his tenure, Senator Magnuson was committed to innovative health policy. One of the first bills introduced by Senator Magnuson led to the foundation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Senator Magnuson also secured millions of dollars in federal appropriations to support the NIH and helped to establish the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute (previously known as the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation).

The goal of the Magnuson Congress was to create a scientific research agenda emphasizing clinical research on diabetes, and to serve as a catalyst for a global diabetes alliance that will secure funding for and oversee the research agenda. The Magnuson Congress was supported by funding from the U.S. Congress.

About PNDRI

PNDRI is a 50 year-old independent, non-profit biomedical and clinical research center located in Seattle and founded by Dr. William Hutchinson, Sr., who also founded the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The mission of PNDRI is to support and conduct basic and clinical studies that lead to the prevention and cure of diabetes and its complications. PNRI's acclaimed team of 85 scientists is committed to applying scientific discoveries to the real improvement of health for people and families living with diabetes. For more information on PNDRI and diabetes, please visit www.pndri.org.