Date: 16-02-2012
Patrizia Luchetta, Director of Life Sciences and Technologies at Luxembourg’s Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade, a position she has held since 2006, was the guest speaker at the February ABAL, hosted by AMCHAM, the American Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg.
Ms Luchetta introduced the event’s topic “Bench2Cures: Philanthrophy for Game Changers" - a virtuous cycle connecting research, healthcare and economic development - which she described as a foundation in the making, set up to support BioMed research. She explained that one challenge she has faced is that philanthropy in the U.S. can differ in approach from that in Europe. Bench2Cures is akin to the active involvement which characterises U.S-based philanthropies by providing a form of a match-making platform, helping translate research results in actual cures by linking donors and researchers.
Between 30% and 70% of the population do not respond to drugs, across a variety of different illnesses, and it is this gap that Bench2Cures addresses. Regarding the financing of research, there are a couple of significant gaps along the research cycle, including proof of concept when going to market, as well as validation pre-clinical validation.
In the U.S., a new type of philanthropy supports research in making the results more attractive to industry: this is one of the issues that Bench2Cures addresses too. Indeed, as Ms Luchetta explained, personalised medicine is based on the right drugs to the right patient in the right doses, but the validation of diagnostics tools to do that can be very expensive.
Bench2Cures tries to apply Private Banking principles to philanthropy--some donors wanting anonymity and others requesting recognition for their involvement. The added value of Luxembourg is that the national research efforts provides a "home" link with which local donors can identify, but Luxembourg-based research is also very international in scope and Bench2Cures's concept should hence also appeal to the banking centers international clientele. Also, donors can engage with specific projects and the research community.
Read the complete article. Using this link, it is also possible to access Ms Luchetta's presentation.
Source: AMCHAM website
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