Hopes and Cures

Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation

A new way to look at funding

The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) raises money and awards grants to academic and biotechnology industry scientists who are conducting drug discovery research for Alzheimer’s Disease, related dementias and cognitive aging.

The way research is funded is evolving and by employing a venture capital model, we are able to take risks and fill the funding gap. We can do this because we are a philanthropic organization and are focused on disease-specific research.  The ADDF funds biotech companies —  startups from universities, and early stage companies. We prefer to fund alongside or before venture capital investors take action, and we often fund alongside SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research grants).  We see our role as a way to fill the funding “valley of death” for companies.  We are proactive and entrepreneurial in what we choose to fund.

Our Successes

To date, we have awarded $28.7M for 195 research programs and conferences in 12 countries.  Our Academic Drug Discovery Program has provided $22.5M to 148 international academic scientists, who have created entirely new classes of drugs in development for AD, screened millions of compounds, identified hundreds of new leads, executed many patents and licenses, and are approaching or entering clinical trials with several new drugs.

In the case of Allon Therapeutics, we had been funding the scientist for several years in her academic laboratory, and we were then able to provide the first funding of $252,000 in 2002 for the creation of a biotechnology company. Recently, Allon announced the results of a successful phase 2 clinical trial showing that its new drug has a positive impact on memory function in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. When the company went public (TSX:NPC), we got our investment back.  More importantly, this is a drug will help a number of people.

Comentis was originally spun out of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.  We gave this biotechnology company the seed money to start as well. The company is engaged in the discovery and development of small-molecule drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cognitive disorders.

Our approach

There are 18 million cases of Alzheimer’s worldwide, and this number is expected to increase to 34 million by 2025. It is our goal to try to find relief any and every way we can; we look for the best way forward.  When therapies cost roughly $1.3 billion and take 12-15 years to develop, we have to promote innovation. 

 We support reauthorizing SBIR funding.  Our country should not be siloed in terms of its approach to developing new therapies.  All segments of society – government, business, academic, nonprofit — need to work together to find cures for diseases like AD, otherwise, it is counterproductive to society’s goals.

Howard Fillit, MD, is the Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.  The ADDF is an affiliated public charity of the Institute for the Study of Aging (ISOA), a private foundation founded by the Estèe Lauder family in 1998. The charity was established in 2004 to enable the public to work with us in advancing our common mission of supporting scientists pursuing drug discovery research for Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias and cognitive aging.