2010 Prize4Life Annual Report
Message from Avi Kremer, Co-Founder & CEO of Prize4Life, Inc.
Dear Friends,
Our 2010 Annual Report is now online. The report provides a summary of our programmatic progress, along with a list of our generous donors and an audited financial statement of our organization for the year. Click here to view the report.
Prize4Life was founded with a simple but ambitious goal: spark a breakthrough in ALS research.
As CEO of Prize4Life, I am enormously proud to report that our innovative prize model helped accelerate just such a breakthrough. As an ALS patient, I am increasingly hopeful that as a result of our efforts we will find a treatment or a cure in my lifetime. In late 2010, the members of our Scientific Advisory Board formally voted to award the $1M ALS Biomarker Prize to Dr. Seward Rutkove for his development of electrical impedance myography (EIM).
EIM is an inexpensive, painless, and non-invasive method of measuring the flow of an electrical current through muscle tissue. By comparing the flow of current through a healthy and diseased muscle tissue, EIM can accurately measure the progression of the disease.
What does this mean for ALS research? This tool will make clinical trials cheaper, faster, and more efficient; effectively cutting the overall cost of these trials in half, creating an incentive for industry to invest in ALS, and accelerating the progress of potential therapies through the drug development pipeline.
The development of Dr. Rutkove's biomarker is a validation of the prize model in the biomedical field, but the impact of this challenge reaches far beyond his breakthrough. Over 1,000 solvers from more than 20 countries competed in this challenge, with more than 2/3 of active solvers originating outside of the traditional research field. The $1M prize leveraged more than $4M in outside investment, increasing the pool of resources dedicated to the disease.
The $1M ALS Biomarker Prize catalyzed a breakthrough in research and brought new minds and money into the field; we are grateful to everyone who competed and who supported the competitors. We also recognize that we could not have achieved this success without the ongoing support of all of our contributors, partners, and friends. Each of you contributed to the discovery of this biomarker.
We are continually thankful for your support. Again, you may view the 2010 Annual Report here.
Sincerely,
Avi Kremer
2009 Prize4Life Annual Report
Message from Avi Kremer, Co-Founder & CEO of Prize4Life, Inc.
Dear Friends,
Our 2009 Annual Report is now online. The report provides a summary of our programmatic progress, along with a list of our generous donors and an audited financial statement of our organization for the year. Click here to view the entire report.
It has been an incredible year here at Prize4Life. We have had so much happening—so much research progress on ALS in general and so much activity at the organization.
The biggest news, as you can read about in the Program Updates section of this annual report, was that Prize4Life awarded $100,000 in progress prizes in April of 2009. Prize4Life's Scientific Advisory Board, a group comprised of some of the leading minds in the ALS basic and applied research communities, reviewed 12 entries submitted by teams hailing from7 different countries, and awarded two teams with $50,000 prizes in recognition of their significant progress towards the identification of a biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Because there is currently no way to precisely track disease progression and treatment efficacy in the short-term, clinical trials are lengthy and costly. The discovery of a biomarker will shorten the duration of trials, reduce the number of patients required to participate, and bring down costs. It is an essential first step in accelerating the discovery of treatments and ultimately a cure for ALS.
While our Scientific Advisory Board did not decide that the criteria for the $1 million biomarker prize had been met by the two recipients, the awarding of these two prizes represents concrete progress towards that goal and the belief that a breakthrough could be just beyond the horizon.
We are tremendously excited and encouraged. As Prize4Life approaches its fourth birthday, I feel that a treatment for ALS is closer than ever. I want to thank all of those who have contributed to the innovative work being undertaken at Prize4Life, as well as all of those are working to unlock the mysteries of this disease and bring us closer to a cure...;
I am enormously grateful for your support. Again, you can view the 2009 Annual Report in its entirety here.
Sincerely,
Avi Kremer
2008 Prize4Life Financial Report
Message from Avi Kremer, Co-Founder & CEO of Prize4Life, Inc.
Prize4Life was founded three years ago by myself and two other Harvard Business School classmates to cure ALS. We didn't want to start an organization that funded academic research, because there were already several of those and they were all doing a good job. Instead, we wanted to take a new approach, one that employed a business perspective. Before starting Prize4Life, we spent over a thousand hours looking at the big picture, and identifying gaps that prevent us from finding a cure.
With that in mind, we established a team of top-notch scientists and business professionals, and have been using innovative business theories to promote research and the search for a cure ever since. In just three short years, our model has established itself as extremely effective in drawing in talent and mobilizing resources to cure ALS.
For example, in October 2008 we launched the Avi Kremer ALS Treatment Prize, made possible by the generous $1 million gift of an anonymous donor. To date, no treatment tested in ALS mice has demonstrated the ability to extend their lifespan by even 10%. This lack of effect in animals has correlated with a lack of effect in patients, so, in consultation with our distinguished Scientific Advisory Board, we carefully designed our Prize to address this gap. Teams are competing to develop a treatment that effectively extends the life in ALS mice by 25%. We currently have over 30 highly-qualified teams registered for the prize, and are thrilled to be administering such a promising project.
We are tremendously encouraged by the activity we have seen this year. We have a stellar team and an excellent model to work with. The goal of Prize4Life is to go out of business as soon as possible. The moment we find a cure, I'll toss my work computer into the Grand Canyon and torch my business cards. Perhaps I'll become a professional basketball player.
This progress is thanks to you, our donors. In the interest of transparency, we are listing both our donors and our audited financial statements for 2008 online. Please review them, and know that your generosity, your support, and your dedication truly sustain Prize4Life, and enable us to continue such important work. Thank you.
Avichai Kremer
Co-Founder & CEO
For a list of sponsors, click here.
