New scheme tackles orphan and neglected diseases
6 Feb 2012
The Pathfinder Awards are intended to facilitate funding applications that would be considered too early for support under the Wellcome Trust's other translational funding schemes. The focus of the scheme is orphan and neglected diseases, where no current therapy exists or where the proposed product will be superior to the existing options.
The term 'orphan disease' is used to denote any disease that affects a small percentage of the population, and a 'neglected disease' is one that disproportionately affects people in low-income countries. In both cases, there are often inadequate treatment options because there is little financial incentive for the private sector to make and market new medications to treat or prevent the disease.
The diagnosis, prevention and treatment of orphan and neglected diseases, therefore, present a huge unmet medical need. The Pathfinder Awards are intended to kick-start pilot research projects that have significant potential to help develop innovative new products in these disease areas.
The funding will help academic teams, or teams from not-for-profit groups, to build on existing partnerships or establish partnerships with a company that has specialist knowledge and access to technologies to facilitate the development of a specific product.
By the end of the Pathfinder Award, the innovation should be a credible asset ready to be further developed by the company and/or be competitive for one of the Wellcome Trust's existing translational awards schemes, through which substantial resources may be sought.
Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said: "Pathfinder Awards are a response to the research community's request for assistance at an early stage in the research and development process. We have focused this offering on neglected and orphan indications to reflect the Wellcome Trust's concern for those areas of medicine most in need of innovation."
Image credit: David Goulding, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
