Pharma giants GlaxoSmithKline and Lilly have revealed their involvement in the new global $100m Dementia Discovery Fund.
GSK has become a partner of the Fund, which is being established by the UK government, and will invest $25m (approximately £17m), while Lilly has announced its investment of an undisclosed sum.
Patrick Vallance, president of pharmaceutical R&D at GSK, commented: “This Fund is a really smart way of bringing to get great minds and communally increasing our understanding of dementia. It is also a good way of sharing the financial risk associated with conducting drug discovery research in this field.
“As well as the $25m contribution, we can bring GSK’s neurosciences expertise to this novel venture, which, combined with that of other partners, puts us in a good position to invest in some potentially exciting new therapies.”
The Fund will aim to identify and pursue promising new avenues of research within the field of dementia, accelerated by financial support and expert advice from its partners.
Jan Lundberg, Lilly’s executive VP of science and technology and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, added: “The UK is a great place for science and discovery and we believe this fund will provide the resources to help advance vital research.
“Our investment in this fund reflects Lilly’s commitment to innovation and our history of collaboration. We look forward to working as part of this collaboration to speed the discovery of new medicines to treat one of the world’s most devastating diseases.”
The Fund, announced by UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt at the World Health Organization’s conference on dementia, will have a scientific advisory board of representatives from each of the partner organisations who will provide expert scientific input during the selection of research programmes in addition to on going advice during clinical stages.
The announcement follows just weeks after funders in the US, Canada and the UK offered almost $2m to The Biomarkers Across Neurodegenerative Diseases (BAND) to advance research into the field.