Alzheimer’s charity invites bids for drug discovery grants

Funding opportunity

The research charity Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) is inviting the biotechnology industry and academia bid for research grants with the aim of catalysing and accelerating the discovery and development of innovative and effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

The programme will fund high throughput screening of novel targets to identify hits and leads, lead validation and optimisation through medicinal chemistry, and pre-clinical in-vitro and in-vivo evaluation, including pharmacology, toxicology, pharmacokinetics, formulation chemistry and the conduct of pre-clinical “proof of concept” studies.

A key priority is the support of Alzheimer’s drug discovery in emerging biotech companies. If the award recipient is a biotechnology company, the ADDF will provide the grant funding in the form of a convertible note, an equity investment or a recoverable grant.

All applications and supporting materials must be received by 1 October 2008, and will be assessed according to the following criteria:

• Merit and feasibility of the proposed research and its relevance to drug discovery and development for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

• Qualifications of the scientific staff conducting the studies.

• Excellence of the research environment, including the availability of a multidisciplinary research team comprised of neuroscientists, medicinal chemists, pharmaceutical scientists, and the necessary animal models, facilities and equipment required for drug discovery and drug development.

The Irish pharmaceutical company Elan plc supports the ADDF and has the exclusive option to negotiate a worldwide license to the research results generated.