Pharmaceutical firms Biogen, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Pfizer and Takeda have all committed to a $100m UK-based fund launched today to support the development of novel dementia treatments.
The Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) will be managed by venture capital firm SV Life Sciences, and also counts the UK government’s Department of Health and medical charity Alzheimer’s Research UK as limited partners.
DDF aims to discover and develop technology over the next 10 years that will improve diagnosis and symptoms of dementia while seeking to pave the way for effective treatments.
The fund will work with universities, academic institutes and the wider pharmaceutical industry to identify innovative research projects that it will help advance to clinical testing.
Patrick Vallance, president of pharmaceuticals R&D for GlaxoSmithKline, said: “The scientific community’s most powerful tool in its fight against dementia is collaboration, to stimulate new avenues of drug discovery.
“This is a complex and costly area of research, and if we are to succeed in developing innovative new treatments, we must be prepared to work together and jointly shoulder the risk of ambitious new approaches.
“This new fund provides the framework for us to do precisely that, bringing together world-leaders in dementia research and combining resources to invest in exciting potential new therapies and startup companies.”