MJFF Partnering Program

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) is piloting a Partnering Program designed to proactively showcase promising research results in the MJFF portfolio for funders who may wish to invest in their continued development. By promoting collaboration between MJFF awardees and industry groups, the Foundation aims to drive forward promising projects in Parkinson’s disease (PD) research along the pipeline of drug development. (To speed new treatments to patients, MJFF frequently partners with industry: Michael J. Fox was recently asked for his perspective on the Foundation’s work to this end.)

To date, the Foundation has funded over $289 million in research, nearly $75 million of which has been directed to more than 150 unique projects led by industry partners. Several MJFF awardees have announced follow-on funding deals with Big Pharma and venture capital firms, validating the Foundation’s approach of early investment at the pre-clinical research stage to catalyze investment in PD drug development, which in turn can accelerate promising targets to the clinic. The Partnering Program is designed to help establish more of these productive relationships.

“More than just investing dollars, MJFF has developed direct, proactive relationships with industry, including advising companies about potential collaborative opportunities,” said Sohini Chowdhury, senior vice president of research partnerships at MJFF. “The Partnering Program will formalize this process, encouraging select awardees to submit public overviews highlighting their organization, team, and projects.”

These overviews are then shared with industry contacts who have expressed interest in reviewing such information, and shared more broadly via MJFF’s website. Awardees spanning the PD drug development pipeline, from basic to clinical research, and from academia and industry alike, will be showcased on a quarterly basis.

MJFF-supported projects featured in second quarter 2012 include:

• Pre-clinical work from Biodesy to develop allosteric and conformation-specific drugs targeting alpha-synuclein
• Pre-clinical development of a secreted growth factor-like protein with neuroprotective potential from Neurodyn
• An academic collaboration between Duke University, National Jewish Health and University of Colorado Denver via Aeolus Pharmaceuticals that has developed a platform of broad-spectrum catalytic antioxidant compounds as neuroprotective strategy for PD
• A Beverly Rzigalinski led team at the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine studying the neuroprotective potential of Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeONP)

Overviews from awardees Addex Pharmaceuticals, Amicus Therapeutics, Allon, Depomed, KineMed, Targacept, and NeuroHealing, were showcased in first quarter 2012.

Please contact the MJFF Research Partnerships team at ResearchPartnerships@michaeljfox.org.