Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is to invest $50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund that brings together industry and government to seek treatments for the brain-wasting disease.<\/p>\n
The investment is not part of Gates\u2019 philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will be followed with another $50 million in a number of start-up ventures working in Alzheimer\u2019s research, Gates said.<\/p>\n
With rapidly rising numbers of people suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s and other forms of dementia, the disease is taking a growing emotional and financial toll as people live longer, Gates told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge problem, a growing problem, and the scale of the tragedy – even for the people who stay alive – is very high,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite decades of scientific research, there is no treatment that can slow the progression of Alzheimer\u2018s. Current drugs can do no more than ease some of the symptoms.<\/p>\n
Gates said, however, that with focused and well-funded innovation, he\u2019s \u201coptimistic\u201d treatments can be found, even if they might be more than a decade away.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt\u2019ll take probably 10 years before new theories are tried enough times to give them a high chance of success. So it\u2019s very hard to hazard a guess (when an effective drug might be developed).<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that in the next 10 years that we have some powerful drugs, but it\u2019s possible that won\u2019t be achieved.\u201d
\nDementia, of which Alzheimer\u2019s is the most common form, affects close to 50 million people worldwide and is expected to affect more than 131 million by 2050, according to the non-profit campaign group Alzheimer\u2019s Disease International.<\/p>\n
The DDF, which was launched in 2015 and involves drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Biogen Idec as well as the UK government, has already invested in at least nine start-up companies investigating potential ways to stop or reverse the biological processes that lead to dementia.<\/p>\n
Gates told Reuters the additional $50 million would be put into start-ups working on some \u201cless mainstream\u201d approaches to the disease, but said he had not yet identified these companies.<\/p>\n
The philanthropist, whose usual focus is on infectious diseases in poorer countries, said Alzheimer\u2019s disease caught his interest partly for personal reasons, and partly because it has so far proved such a tough nut to crack.
\n\u201cI know how awful it is to watch people you love struggle as the disease robs them of their mental capacity… It feels a lot like you\u2019re experiencing a gradual death of the person that you knew,\u201d he said in a blog post about the dementia investments.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cSome of the men in my family have suffered from Alzheimer\u2018s, but I wouldn\u2019t say that\u2019s the sole reason\u201d (for this investment).<\/p>\n
Through talking to experts in the field over the past year, Gates said he had identified five areas of need: Understanding better how Alzheimer\u2019s unfolds, detecting and diagnosing it earlier, pursuing multiple approaches to trying to halt the disease, making it easier for people to take part in clinical trials of potential new medicines, and using data better.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy background at Microsoft and my (Gates) Foundation background say to me that a data-driven contribution might be an area where I can help add some value,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alongside the $50 million investment in DDF and the additional $50 million planned for start-ups, Gates said he would like to award a grant to build a global dementia data platform. This would make it easier for researchers to look for patterns and identify new pathways for treatment, he said.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Huffington Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is to invest $50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund that brings together industry and government to seek treatments for the brain-wasting disease. The investment is not part of Gates\u2019 philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will be followed with another $50 million in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[11641,5572],"yoast_head":"\n