The founder of Microsoft announced to invest in a fund that supports young companies exploring new avenues of research, in order to find a cure.
US billionaire Bill Gates announced Monday that he has invested $ 50 million of his personal fortune to support alternative research against Alzheimer’s disease. “We need to support scientists who have different ideas, less generalist,” said the founder of Microsoft on his blog, saying: “We need many ideas that will give us the best chance to cure Alzheimer’s”.
“At first I invested $ 50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund,” a public-private partnership that supports start-ups exploring new avenues for treatment research, he said, while the disease is better known and better diagnosed.
Do as well as for HIV
“We have seen scientific breakthroughs that have transformed old diseases with a highly fatal outcome, such as HIV, into chronic diseases that can be controlled by drugs, and I believe we can do as well (or better) with Alzheimer’s. “, says the richest man in the world.
According to him, the financial cost of treating this disease is “one of the heaviest burdens for health systems in developed countries, and without major progress, spending will continue to squeeze budgets in the coming years and decades.”
“It’s a terrible disease, destroying those who have it and their loved ones,” says the founder of Microsoft, pointing out that “men in [his] family have suffered” from dementia.
The number of cases could triple without effective treatment
“I’m making this investment alone, not through [m] a Foundation,” he says.The first Alzheimer’s treatments should not bear fruit for at least a decade, and they will be very expensive first. this day will come, our foundation could study how to expand their access to poor countries. “
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds numerous projects around the world, from research against infectious diseases such as AIDS, malaria, and polio, to the fight against poverty.
