Around 7,000 rare diseases affect about one in 20 people worldwide. That includes 3.5 million people in the UK. These conditions are often chronic, life-threatening and isolating for the sufferers and their families.
Only around 400 of these indications have licensed treatments and that number is only increasing slowly, as industry is reluctant to invest without a likely financial return on investment. In addition, some ultra-rare diseases however may never yield any commercial return, as patient numbers are too small.
Funds for research on rare diseases are scarce, particularly for therapeutic development, as industry is reluctant to invest without a likely financial return on investment.
LifeArc’s Philanthropic Fund awards grants to academics who have promising projects focused on research into therapeutics, devices or diagnostics that could support people who are living with a rare disease. We have a history of supporting the delivery of transformational therapeutics and are always looking for new ways to progress promising science into therapeutics and diagnostics. The research we fund must also have a credible path to patients.
Where possible, we welcome the opportunity to partner with a charity, patient-group or industry partner who shares our aim of addressing the need for solutions to rare disease.
Our funding allows research projects to remain longer in academia and move further along a development pathway – by which point they may be more attractive to follow-on investors.
