The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the world's leading charitable funder of research leading to a cure of
type 1 diabetes and its complications, held the Global
Diabetes Research Forum today as part of its annual meeting in Washington, DC. Leading representatives from academic research, government, philanthropy, and industry presented their views on how to create new interdependent working relationships in order to hasten the pace of science to achieve cures and improve global health.
"These are momentous times for everyone affected by type 1 diabetes. In the next five years, about $2.5 billion will be invested in the search for a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications around the world - double the spending levels from the recent past," said Peter Van Etten, President and CEO of JDRF. "Unfortunately, simply spending money doesn't necessarily shorten the timeline for scientific results. The magnitude of the projected spending makes us all in the world of research that more accountable for results, and results now."
At the forefront of finding a cure for juvenile diabetes, JDRF, in collaboration with its partners, created the Forum to steer the direction of diabetes research by reexamining the objectives, procedures, funding and pace for research to address issues that traditionally hinders the achievement of real results: incremental improvements versus genuine breakthroughs; the gap between preclinical studies and human treatments; lack of communication and shared resources among researchers and institutions; separation among individual funding sectors; rising costs and complexities of medical research; and the reluctance to take completely new research approaches.
The new unrelenting, risk-taking approach for medical research announced by JDRF reflects the influence of the Department of Defense's Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA). "Failure does not occur because we take risks - but where we fail to see that the problem justifies the risks," said Dr. Joseph Bielitzki, Program Manager for the Metabolic Engineering and Engineered Tissue Constructs Programs for DARPA. "Type 1 diabetes falls into that category."
The Forum's highlights included a presentation from Michael Milken, Chairman of FasterCures, who stated that lack of information sharing is a major impediment to medical research. According to Milken, "Making patient medical records public for researchers to share will quicken the finding of cures for diseases such as type 1 diabetes."
Other keynote speakers included Sylvia Mathews, Chief Operating Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Dr. Allen M. Spiegel, Director of the National Institutes of Health's National Institution of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases; and Stephen W. Potter, Vice President of Corporate Development for Genzyme.
Mary Tyler Moore, International Chairman for JDRF, made a call to action while expressing a great sense of urgency to finding a cure for juvenile diabetes. "Here at the JW Marriott, world leaders are gathered to confront the tyranny of diabetes. Now some of you may find this an overstatement, but allow me, as someone who has struggled with diabetes for over 35 years, this license. What else would you call something that rips you from sleep, disoriented and sweating, imposing an overwhelming sense of dread and fear for your life?" challenged Mary Tyler Moore. "I am here today to declare my optimism that we can deliver a cure, sooner rather than later. But to do so, it will take bold and unwavering action on all our parts."