DKK 228 million to fund Danish brain research
The Lundbeck Foundation’s Board of Directors recently decided to fund new Danish brain research to the tune of DKK 228 million. A considerable proportion of this funding goes to projects focusing on personalised medicine in support of the Danish government’s strategy in this area.
Brain disorders cost society more than cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease together. Yet we still know far too little about both the healthy and the sick brain.
For this reason, the Lundbeck Foundation’s Board of Directors decided at a meeting on Friday 14 December to allocate DKK 228 million to Danish brain research – the largest single donation in the history of the Foundation.
‘When you consider the huge cost of a brain disorder to the individual patient, to relatives and to society, it makes you wonder why the field isn’t given more focus and funding. We still know so very little about the brain. Yes, it’s complex, but that’s all the more reason why we should allocate more resources and try to gain a better understanding, so that we can develop better and more effective therapies,’ says Christian Elling, Acting Senior Vice President, Grants & Prizes, at the Lundbeck Foundation.
‘The Lundbeck Foundation has an ambition to elevate Denmark to the ranks of the world’s leading brain research nations, and we’re now following this up with action and 228 million Danish kroner.’
The scientists who will be receiving the grants will be notified within the next few weeks.
Supporting the national strategy
A considerable proportion of this funding goes to projects focusing on personalised medicine in support of the Danish government’s strategy in this area.
‘We see immense potential for more precise diagnoses and personalised therapies for brain disorders, so we’ve chosen to give almost 90 million Danish kroner to research projects focusing on personalised medicine. But we also based our decision on our very positive view of the national strategy for personalised medicine and we would like to play a role in supporting a good public initiative,’ says Christian Elling.
The Danish Ministry of Health published the national strategy for personalised medicine at the end of 2016, and DKK 100 million was earmarked in the Budget for the launch of the project. The strategy includes establishment of a national genome centre to promote use of gene tests to describe development of a disease in an individual patient and to identify more precisely whether the person in question would benefit from a specific drug.
For further details please contact:
Christian Elling, Acting Senior Vice President, Grants & Prizes, at the Lundbeck Foundation, tel. +45 2062 1276 or cee@lundbeckfonden.com
Pernille Thorborg Jasper, Media Relations Manager at the Lundbeck Foundation, tel. +45 2118 9132 or ptj@lundbeckfonden.com
