Dementia treatment fund receives $10M donation
Two non-profit organizations dedicated to the treatment of brain diseases have received a $10 million donation for the joint development of effective treatment for frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia that affects more than 50,000 people in the United States.
The Lauder Foundation, Leonard A. Lauder and Ronald S. Lauder jointly committed $5 million, which will be combined with $5 million from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation to create The Treat FTD Fund, a joint effort of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD).
The donors said in a statement Friday that The Treat FTD Fund will accelerate clinical trials focused on frontotemporal degeneration over the next decade and "has the potential to advance treatments for other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, ALS and Parkinson’s."
One aim of the $10 million investment is to encourage other funders to invest in drug research for the brain-related diseases.
“The challenge of developing effective treatments for persons with FTD calls for an ‘all hands on deck’ effort," said Walter J. Koroshetz, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health. "Collaborations like this one will bring great scientists to work on FTD, and set a tone of hope for what NIH and the private sector can achieve together.”
The ADDF was founded in 1998 by New York businessmen and philanthropists Leonard A. Lauder and Ronald S. Lauder to seek treatment for Alzheimer's and others causes of dementia.
"Partnerships have always been an important part of that mission because they allow us to combine resources and to develop effective drugs faster,” said Leonard Lauder, ADDF board chairman.
AFTD, founded in 2002 and supported by the Newhouse foundation, describes itself as "the leading nonprofit working to improve the quality of life of people affected by FTD in the United States, and to drive research to a cure."
"My wife, Susan, suffered from primary progressive aphasia, a form of FTD," said Donald Newhouse, president of Advance Publications, Inc. "My brother, Si, suffers from the same dementia. Si’s wife, Victoria, and I and our families are committed to research to find treatments and a cure for FTD and Alzheimer’s. This partnership between the ADDF and AFTD is a significant step forward in carrying out our commitment.”
The ADDF and AFTD, according to a joint statement, plan to support new drugs in clinical trials, as well as “repurposed” drugs, which have been approved for other diseases.