NEWYORK, NY — In the interest of accelerating delivery of transformative treatments for Parkinson’s disease, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research today announced the 2008 launch of its annual Clinical Intervention Awards. The program, formerly known as Clinical Discovery Awards, has been revamped with an even greater focus on clinical testing of promising therapies with potential to fundamentally improve the treatment of Parkinson’s disease symptoms and even impact disease progression.
“Trials to develop transformative treatments are not only scientifically and technically challenging but are often hampered by budgetary constraints that can limit the quality and quantity of data collected and therefore the interpretability of results,.” said Katie Hood, CEO of The Michael J. Fox Foundation. “Clinical Intervention is designed to accelerate the development of transformative treatments by strategically allocating resources to address this challenge, and ultimately to increase the number of therapies progressing through the clinical trial pipeline.”
Ideal proposals will be rooted in well-designed and rigorous clinical trials that test potentially high-impact treatment approaches. Applicants may seek full support for a trial, if feasible within the program budgetary constraints, or may request funding to supplement a clinical testing effort supported by other funding sources. In the latter case, MJFF is particularly interested in assisting sponsors wishing to maximize data collected from clinical trials by the inclusion of additional trial features (e.g., increased sample size, inclusion/testing of additional or novel endpoints, increasing frequency of subject assessments or trial duration, etc.). Applicants should make a strong case for how the additional information can significantly improve the overall trial and lead to better decision making regarding continued clinical development of the tested therapeutic approach.
The program is open to academic and industry investigators alike and will provide up to $3 million in funding for clinical research projects for up to three years. Pre-proposals will be reviewed by the Foundation’s scientific staff and a panel of scientific experts and must be submitted online by April 14, 2008. Information about submitting pre-proposals online can be found on the Foundation’s Web site (www.michaeljfox.org). Applicants whose pre-proposals are determined to meet the review criteria will be invited to submit full application proposals. Funding is anticipated by September 2008.
A conference call with MJFF Research Programs staff to further clarify the aims and goals of this initiative will be held March 11 at 12 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. Researchers wishing to participate in the call must RSVP to conferencecalls@michaeljfox.org and will receive an e-mail reply with call-in details.