Big pharma joins UK government in Alzheimer's research funding boost
• By Alex Shimmings
Generate a summary of this article
Listen to this article
Biogen, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly and Pfizer have all committed in principle to investing, alongside the charity Alzheimer's Research UK and the UK government, in a $100m Dementia Discovery Fund announced by the UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt at the World Health Organization’s First Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia on 17 March. The UK government has been working with JP Morgan to structure the Dementia Discovery Fund as an innovative method for financing dementia research. It will be structured as a typical venture capital fund, but will be the first to focus solely on dementia research. The idea is to bring together the combined expertise of government, financial, industry and charity partners to develop pioneering new drugs to treat the condition. The money committed by investors includes the £15m that the UK government announced for the fund in autumn 2014, plus $25m (about £17m) from GlaxoSmithKline, $10m from Johnson & Johnson and further undisclosed commitments from the other companies. There will be an opportunity for additional interested investors to participate in the fund at a later stage.
Biogen, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly and Pfizer have all committed in principle to investing, alongside the charity Alzheimer's Research UK and the UK government, in a $100m Dementia Discovery Fund announced by the UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt at the World Health Organization’s First Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia on 17 March. The UK government has been working with JP Morgan to structure the Dementia Discovery Fund as an innovative method for financing dementia research. It will be structured as a typical venture capital fund, but will be the first to focus solely on dementia research. The idea is to bring together the combined expertise of government, financial, industry and charity partners to develop pioneering new drugs to treat the condition. The money committed by investors includes the £15m that the UK government announced for the fund in autumn 2014, plus $25m (about £17m) from GlaxoSmithKline, $10m from Johnson & Johnson and further undisclosed commitments from the other companies. There will be an opportunity for additional interested investors to participate in the fund at a later stage.
Related stories
Keep up with the top pharma business news of the week. On the go.
Interim results from the Phase III REMARK study presented at WCLC showed the Chinese company’s second-generation ALK/ROS1 inhibitor met its primary endpoint as a first-line therapy in ALK-positive advanced NSCLC.
Pipelines in bioconjugates continue to develop, from ADCs to XDCs, with radionuclide drug conjugates (RDCs) and antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (AOCs) leading the expansion.
Interim results from the Phase III REMARK study presented at WCLC showed the Chinese company’s second-generation ALK/ROS1 inhibitor met its primary endpoint as a first-line therapy in ALK-positive advanced NSCLC.
The US precision medicine company hopes its drug response predictor technology will enhance responses to the chemotherapy Ixempra on the basis of promising data from a handful of breast cancer patients in a Phase II trial, marking a positive turn in its journey to date.
Pipelines in bioconjugates continue to develop, from ADCs to XDCs, with radionuclide drug conjugates (RDCs) and antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (AOCs) leading the expansion.
Interim results from the Phase III REMARK study presented at WCLC showed the Chinese company’s second-generation ALK/ROS1 inhibitor met its primary endpoint as a first-line therapy in ALK-positive advanced NSCLC.