DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One of today’s painful medical truths is that the majority of Americans know someone, have a family member, or are directly impacted by a number of devastating diseases. There is a host of promising research, but often the funding is not available to move forward, leaving many patients and families waiting for a cure. In many cases, time is running out. Today, Give To Cure officially announced that it has launched the world’s first nonprofit that accelerates drug development through “cure-funding,” or funding promising clinical trials directly and transparently by harnessing the power of the crowd.
“We’ve created a science-driven community that realizes the power of the crowd to find cures faster. Our goal is to bridge the translational valley of death in the drug development process, and fund promising treatments that are ready to be tested in patients tomorrow,” said Lou Reese, co-founder of Give To Cure. “We have a hunger for finding cures and know many Americans are passionate in the same way. One hundred percent of the funds raised by the public will be used to ‘cure-fund’ clinical trial research. Give To Cure allows people a way to put their money where their hearts are.”
Several years ago, Reese studied the background about polio and the role of the March of Dimes in solving the epidemic. Literally dime-by-dime, without a dollar of government funding, the American public raised enough money to ultimately fund a vaccine for polio. Inspired by this story, Reese wanted to see if he could bring history forward to recreate the model to address modern day medical needs.
Together with a team of like-minded entrepreneurs, Reese, Mei Mei Hu, Rafi Gidron and Adam Grossman started Give To Cure. Their vision is to create a platform committed to driving research that focuses exclusively on clinical trials, the first opportunity for treatments to reach humans. Clinical trials have a higher probability of success and a shorter potential lead-time to market, as compared to earlier stage research. Many of these trials are driven by independent biotechs, academics and research institutions. There are many promising drug studies approved for human trials, but all too often stalled due to lack of funding.
For its first campaign, Give To Cure chose to target Alzheimer’s Disease because it represents one of the largest unmet medical needs in the world today. More than 5.6 million people in the United States alone are suffering with Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to triple to 16 million by 2050. Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death and continues to grow. There is no cure, and it can’t be prevented or even slowed. Alzheimer’s is the single biggest medical expenditure costing the United States more than $200 billion annually.
Donations of $15 Can Make A Difference
November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness month. “As people focus this month on the issues surrounding Alzheimer’s, we want them to know there is a myth that Alzheimer’s research is properly funded,” said Mei Mei Hu, co-founder of Give To Cure. “Our goal is to activate and engage passionate individuals in our community to help us accelerate funding so that we can connect good people to good medicine. Chances are, individuals and/or their families will be touched at some point in their lives by this disease. If every one of the 5.6 million current Alzheimer’s patients had $15 donated in their honor, we can statistically fund enough trials to find new treatments. This would be a huge step forward to find a cure.”
The Selection of the First Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials
Earlier this year, Give To Cure launched a groundbreaking competition for eligible FDA or FDA-equivalent approved clinical trials, ready to enroll patients within six months of funding. The competition attracted nearly 40 applications from more than a dozen countries and 13 U.S. states, and became one of the most successful RFPs conducted in the Alzheimer’s space. Give To Cure assembled an independent Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) comprised of leading thinkers, researchers and doctors in Alzheimer’s to evaluate the applications. Unlike traditional funding sources that must consider business factors such as risk, diversification, and commercial marketability, the SAB was freely guided by science over profit.
Through a rigorous process, Give To Cure has chosen and prioritized three Alzheimer’s trials and is planning to crowdfund approximately $10 million to support this research. Once this first campaign is concluded, Give To Cure will utilize its platform to expand its scope including other major diseases.
“The winning trials were those that would have the most meaningful impact on Alzheimer’s research, the greatest likelihood of success and were led by the teams with the strongest track records,” said Adam Grossman, co-founder of Give To Cure.
Give To Cure Expert Advisory Boards
“Give To Cure has the best minds to help select and bring the idea of medical crowdfunding to market,” said Rafi Gidron, co-founder of Give To Cure. “We placed great care in choosing many of the brightest minds in science, medicine and business. These experts are all independent, non-paid and have the experience and credentials to select the best studies with the greatest chance for impact.”
Members of the Scientific Advisory Board Include:
- Dr. Kostas Lyketsos, chairman, was the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Neuropsychiatry Service and an expert in dementia and traumatic brain injury. He has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and commentaries, as well as five books. He is editor-in-chief of the International Review of Psychiatry, as well as other Alzheimer’s and dementia journals.
- Dr. Gal Bitan is associate professor of neurology in the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. He received the Turken Research Award for the study of Alzheimer’s.
- Dr. Peter Davies is the scientific director of the Litwin/Zucker Center for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. He has published more than 250 papers and has received numerous awards for his research. His research was instrumental in the development of the currently approved drugs for Alzheimer’s.
- Dr. James Galvin is associate dean for clinical research and a professor at the College of Medicine, medical director of the Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center and professor at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University. He has authored more than 115 scientific publications, and is the editor of two textbooks on dementia.
- Dr. John Hardy is with the Department of Molecular Neuroscience at the Institute of Neurology. He has won numerous awards for his work with Alzheimer’s, including the Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award and IFRAD European Grand Prize for Alzheimer’s Research.
- Dr. Frank LaFerla is dean of the School of Biological Sciences and chancellor’s professor at UC-Irvine. He is past director of the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders and also a fellow of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.
Give To Cure’s Global Advisory Board (GAB) is comprised of leaders and innovators in healthcare, business and public policy, dedicated to ensuring the organization finds and captures opportunities to accelerate cures.
Members of the Global Advisory Board Include:
- Dr. Thomas Zeltner, chairman, is the former secretary of health of Switzerland and international expert leader of public health. Zeltner serves the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) as special envoy on WHO’s engagement with non-State participants such as NGOs.
- Dr. Sam Bakri is a healthcare entrepreneur with extensive experience in both start-ups, founder of Eastern Healthcare Partners and Kind Consumer.
- Greg Simon is CEO of Poliwogg, a financial services company expanding investment opportunities in life sciences, and former founding President of FasterCures.
- Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University and director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Tanzi hosts the PBS show “Super Brain” and was recently named TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2015.
- Steven Thompson is senior vice president and chief business development officer at Brigham and Women’s Healthcare. He is a pioneer in global collaborative health care and international patient care.
“Give To Cure puts individuals at the center of real medical change,” said Reese. “This is a rare opportunity to fund and find cures faster while illustrating how the power of the crowd connects advocates, research and patients in potentially life-saving ways.”
About Give To Cure
Give To Cure is the world's first nonprofit that accelerates drug development by empowering individuals to directly and transparently fund clinical trials. Give To Cure is guided by science to bring front-line treatments to those who need them through the power of crowdfunding. To learn more or to donate, visit www.GiveToCure.org.
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