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- The full £50 million pledged for MND research is being put into the hands of researchers as quickly as possible, with further awards today.
- £29.5 million of government funding will be invested immediately through partnerships with specialist research centers and leading researchers.
- A further £20.5m has also been committed for use in MND research, available through open call processes, to accelerate work on the most promising treatments.
The Government will cut red tape to boost research into motor neurone disease (MND) across the UK, with immediate investment so NHS patients can benefit from cutting-edge treatments and medicines, the Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, and the Business Secretary, Grant Shaps, announced today. .
The work being done in the field of MND research has highlighted the impact of cutting-edge research, but there is still progress to be made to help sufferers of this debilitating condition.
Removing red tape will ensure funding reaches front-line researchers more quickly, enabling faster progress towards treatments. This will be done through the Biomedical Research Centers – a collaboration between academics and clinicians to translate breakthroughs in the lab into potential new treatments, diagnostics and medical technologies – to fund the most promising researchers already working in MND.
In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) will work together to ensure that proposals are referred to the most appropriate scheme for consideration at the initial consideration stage.
This represents an opportunity for outstanding researchers to receive more than £50 million in initial funding to bring new treatments from the laboratory to patients.
The Health and Social Care Secretary will also host leading researchers and patient groups at a roundtable to discuss their research on MND and how they can access and bid for this extra funding – ensuring an open dialogue.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:
Motor neurone disease can have a devastating impact on people’s lives, and I am determined to help accelerate research to find a cure and develop innovative treatments.
We’ve already invested millions to improve treatments and our understanding of this condition but there’s more we can do, and that’s why I’m now cutting red tape to fast-track funding and making sure it gets to the next researchers more quickly.
I am grateful to the United to End MND campaign for their work in raising awareness and I congratulate Kevin Sinfield on his epic achievement of completing seven ultra-marathons, as well as remembering the late Dodie Ware for her outstanding contribution over the last five years. .
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Grants said:
Some of the UK’s brightest and best scientific minds are battling to find a treatment – and one day, a cure – for the cruel and devastating condition Motor Neurone Disease. We have invested millions of pounds to support them in that fight, but we are committed to doing more.
Today’s actions will cut unnecessary red tape, get critical funding to the front lines faster, and invest more in the critical work our world-leading scientists and researchers are doing.
£50 million has been committed to MND research over the next five years by the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, strengthening the progress being made by the UK’s world-leading scientists. Recent breakthroughs include stem cell research by the Francis Crick Institute to investigate the molecular processes that cause disease; and the development of a new form of test for MND by the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI), which is now being used in clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of new treatments.
Today the Government is boosting £29.5 million of committed funding to specialist research centers and partnering with leading researchers to cut bureaucracy and help researchers access funding as quickly as possible.
The £29.5 million package includes:
- £8 million for early-stage clinical research into MND, NIHR Biomedical Research Centers accelerate innovative new treatments for patients through specialist research centres, which bring together experts to translate scientific breakthroughs into potential treatments for patients.
- £12.5 million to support the best research science at the UK Dementia Research Institute (DRI), recognizing the fact that the underlying mechanisms of MND are shared with frontal temporal lobe dementia, presenting new possibilities for targeted drug development.
- A £3 million translational accelerator investment from the MRC (later to be matched by another £3 million from the NIHR) to link these investments with other relevant programs such as the MND Collaborative and the UK Dementias Platform (DPUK).
- £1 million of government funding that was allocated in June 2022 will increase the coordination of UK MND research by establishing the MND Collaborative Partnership, bringing together people living with MND, charities and MND researchers across the UK to find meaningful MND treatments. It is co-funded by medical research charity LifeArc and MND patient charities MND Association, My Name’5 Doddy Foundation and MND Scotland.
- An additional £2 million investment in this MND collaborative partnership to focus on gathering and analyzing existing data to help explore the root causes of MND and develop new treatments.
The remainder of the committed £50 million MND funding is available for researchers to access through the NIHR and MRC. To support this work, the Government has today published a joint NIHR/MRC Highlight Notice inviting outstanding researchers in academia and the life sciences to submit applications for an open call for high quality projects, responding to advances in science, so that progress reaches patients. can as fast as possible.
The NIHR and MRC are particularly looking for the opportunity to see ‘pull-through’ of treatments with early promise into clinical trials, as they emerge from initial funding in this space. The NIHR and MRC already fund programs across the translational research pipeline and expect to fund scientifically outstanding applications that will positively impact patients’ lives, with the expectation that this will further increase funding applications over the coming years beyond the initial commitment. .
The funding will allow researchers to better understand the disease and its related conditions, develop and test treatments, and ultimately give people living with the condition a better quality of life and better years with their loved ones.
NIHR CEO Professor Lucy Chappell said:
Today’s significant commitment to deliver motor neurone disease research is the next step towards truly tackling this debilitating disease.
This detailed plan makes full use of our world-leading health research field, and gives us the best chance of making truly effective findings and treatments.
Health research saves lives. We look forward to working with our researchers, partners and people living with motor neurone disease to ensure the work shown today is the best it can be.
The Government will continue to use expertise and innovation, such as work already underway at the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Center where scientists are trialling new treatments to treat the condition. Promising trials have recently shown delayed disease progression when patients were given the new drugs.
The funding builds on the Life Science Vision published in 2021 and sets out the Government’s commitment to accelerating innovative neurodegeneration and dementia research, so that new treatments reach patients faster.
On behalf of the MND Collaborative Partnership, LifeArc’s Dr. Caitriona Crombie said:
The UK is a leader in MND research. This new £2 million funding to the MND Collaborative Partnership will help us unlock the potential in patient data and reveal new clues for scientists and researchers to develop new treatments.
We are grateful that the Government listened to the coalition of people living with MND, the MND scientific community and MND charities who have shown how important and urgent MND research progress is. We look forward to continuing to work together to ensure that the funding plans outlined today have the greatest impact and drive new treatments faster towards people with MND.
This boost to MND research is part of wider funding in neurodegeneration research, including funding to support pioneering clinical trials that lead to major advances in how the disease is understood. This includes improving our understanding of how different types of MND are passed down genetically which could unlock new treatment options for patients using gene therapy. The Government will continue to use expertise and innovation, such as the work already underway at the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Center where scientists are trialling new treatments to treat the condition. Promising trials have recently shown delayed disease progression when patients were given the new drugs.
The funding builds on the Life Science Vision published in 2021 and sets out the Government’s commitment to accelerating innovative neurodegeneration and dementia research, so that new treatments reach patients faster.
Background information
- MND is a condition that affects the brain and nerves and 5,000 people in the UK are thought to have the condition. There is currently only one drug licensed to treat MND in the UK – riluzole – which slows the progression of the disease and extends someone’s life by a few months.
- In 2021, as part of a £375m package for research into neurodegeneratives, at least £50m of funding was committed to MND research over the following five years by the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. diseases
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