The Michael J. Fox Foundation Annual Report | Page 7

A Letter from
the CEO and the
Co-Founder

03

Dear Friend,
Parkinson’s research is in the midst of a renaissance. The field has been invigorated
by multiple scientific breakthroughs and promising new leads. In confluence
with seminal advances in biology, powerful new computing technologies and an
increasingly engaged patient community have combined to set the stage for a new
era of discovery.
And thanks to your support, The Michael J. Fox Foundation

forward in testing, as have several other synuclein

is leading the charge toward a world without Parkinson’s

strategies we funded in early, high-risk stages. We also are

disease (PD). Due in no small part to our focus on high-

working to develop an imaging agent that could visualize

priority therapeutic targets, PD research in 2014 continued

synuclein in the living brain in order to help scientists

making tangible progress toward clinic and market.

determine whether a drug is working — similar work has

In these pages, it is our privilege to update you on key

been instrumental in recent groundbreaking findings in

advances in Parkinson’s drug development over the past

the Alzheimer’s field.

year and report back to you on the ongoing impact of

Our holistic strategy targeting LRRK2, the most

your philanthropy.

common Parkinson’s genetic risk factor discovered to

Speeding the next generation of
treatments

date, also marches forward. When a pre-clinical finding

Alpha-synuclein (the protein that clumps in brain and

Foundation spearheaded a highly unconventional

body cells of people with PD, giving rise to the toxicity

collaboration of three companies who set aside their

and cell death that mark the disease process) remains

status as competitors to work side-by-side assessing

the focus of intense investigation as a potential drug

the seriousness of these results. It would be impossible

target. In 2014 AFFiRiS, an Austrian biotechnology

to overstate the rarity of such cooperation. It is no

company, announced positive Phase I results from its

exaggeration to say that this consortium, made possible

Foundation-supported study targeting alpha-synuclein.

by each company’s trust in our Foundation, averted a

A second, similar approach led by biotech and

setback to the LRRK2 field that would have cost years of

Foundation collaborator Prothena also recently moved

progress. (Learn more on page 28.)

by pharmaceutical firm Genentech signaled that LRRK2
drugs might bring about changes in lung tissue, the

THE MICHAEL J. FOX FOUNDATION
ANNUAL REPORT 2014