Medical research — particularly the development and testing of new drugs — is a painfully slow process that in the best cases is still usually measured in decades. Philanthropic funders that focus on disease typically say their mission is essentially to speed that process up, in large part through small but timely grants that nurture early-stage drug development research and push it farther along the pipeline. For people with Parkinson’s disease, an incurable neurodegenerative disease that causes the loss of important neurons in the brain, leading to movement disorders and other serious symptoms, the wait for cures and treatments means continued loss of function.
But in recent years, a few deep-pocketed philanthropic funders are bringing new energy, new money and new hope to research into the still-incompletely understood biology of Parkinson’s. They include Google co-founder Sergey Brin and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which together have added more than $1 billion to Parkinson’s research and care. We’ve also been seeing efforts on the part of philanthropy to find new ways to speed the creation of therapies. Brin, in collaboration with Fox’s foundation, for example, also funded a new initiative designed to coordinate and speed research, Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP), by injecting even more resources into the study of Parkinson’s.
Now the U.S.-based Parkinson’s Foundation, which has invested $400 million in research and care since 1957, has advanced on yet another tack to speed the development of Parkinson’s drugs and therapies. The foundation recently announced it had struck a strategic partnership with Parkinson’s UK, the nation’s largest charitable funder of research into the disease, to advance early-stage drug development efforts. Parkinson’s Foundation committed a minimum of $3 million through its newly created Venture Philanthropy Fund into Parkinson’s UK’s drug development arm, the Virtual Biotech.
The Virtual Biotech’s goal of developing a portfolio of drug candidates made sense for the Parkinson’s Foundation, explained John Lehr, president and CEO. The funder has collaborated for years with Parkinson’s UK and had even made a small investment in the Virtual Biotech prior to the COVID pandemic. Now, with increasing research activity around Parkinson’s disease, Lehr said, it was a good time to revisit the idea and expand investment.
“So we created the venture philanthropy fund to support our drug discovery and development efforts,” said Lehr. “What I like about the Virtual Biotech is how it functions like a pharmaceutical company, developing a broad range of potential therapies, some controlling the symptoms, and some really focusing on the underlying disease. The goal is to have a lot of variety.”
Venture philanthropy — a funding model that seeks to apply venture-capital-style funding to nonprofit organizations and philanthropic causes — arose in the late 1990s and has continued to build and evolve. We’ve written about venture philanthropy funds over the years, including this overview of the New Venture Fund, which supports global health projects. And in a broader take here, Inside Philanthropy Editor David Callahan discusses the model and some of the concerns and criticisms from within the philanthropy and nonprofit sector.
Parkinson’s, like other neurodegenerative diseases, is an extremely complex disorder whose biology is still not fully understood. While most likely centered in the brain, some researchers suspect Parkinson’s may begin or at least be involved in other parts of the body, such as the gut or immune system. People with Parkinson’s lose dopamine neurons, which causes problems with movement and cognitive function, and sensory processes like smell, among other symptoms. And because these issues are happening in the brain, which is physiologically protected by the blood-brain barrier, it’s hard to find medicines that can reach the areas where therapeutic help is needed.
The primary therapy used to treat Parkinson’s patients is dopamine replacement, a therapy developed a half-century ago. It provides important benefits for patients, but also causes serious side effects. “It’s a good drug, and it helps lots of people, but it’s not the drug we’re looking for,” said Lehr.
A few other drugs have become available to help with symptoms of the condition. So the Parkinson’s community is looking for newer and better therapies, and, of course, ultimately, a cure. There is ample reason to hope for substantial advances in treatment: Lehr, for example, who was previously vice president of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, cites the development of breakthrough medicines that allowed kids with CF who once would have died quite young to live pretty healthily into middle age. Similarly, HIV/AIDS, initially a grim prognosis, is now a manageable condition. Meanwhile, Parkinson’s is the fastest-growing neurodegenerative disease: We need better treatments in years, not decades.