Repurposing Drugs for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Request for Proposals (RFP)

Neurodegenerative diseases represent one of the most difficult classes of diseases for which to develop drugs, yet the need is great with nearly 36 million people currently suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias worldwide. There are many different pathways that influence neurodegenerative disease progression, offering a huge opportunity to target some of these pathways with repurposed drugs approved, or in development for, other indications. Repurposing, or repositioning, offers an opportunity to take advantage of common mechanisms between seemingly unrelated diseases and efficiently translate completed preclinical work and safety data towards Alzheimer’s disease, reducing time and cost and expediting novel treatments to patients. The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and the Alzheimer’s Society (UK) are partnering together to issue this RFP to specially target the development of repurposed drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Priority areas for this RFP:
For the purposes of this RFP, repurposed drugs includes both drugs that have been approved for other indications as well as compounds still under development for other conditions (sometimes referred to as ‘repositioning’).

 Phase I-II human clinical trials of repurposed drugs that include biomarker endpoints relevant to the proposed mechanism of action
 Animal model studies of repurposed drugs in preclinical models
 Additional preclinical development work required to bring a repurposed drug into human clinical testing for Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia.

Proposals should be hypothesis driven and drug(s) chosen for testing should target a mechanism of action(s) with strong rationale for dementia. Interdisciplinary teams are highly encouraged.

MECHANISM(S) OF SUPPORT: Applications may be submitted by non-profit academic institutions and for-profit biotechnology companies, both public and private, worldwide. Applicants can apply for funding in the range of $100,000 up to $1.5M per application, depending on the stage of the research project. Please note that funding to biotechnology companies is typically made as a mission related investment. At least $1.5M will be reserved for academic funding in the UK.

REVIEW PROCESS: The deadline date for applications is June 5, 2013. Submission of a Letter of Intent (LOI) is required at least 2 weeks prior to this deadline. Applications will be confidentially reviewed by the ADDF, Alzheimer’s Society and an external Scientific Review Committee. Applications from biotechnology companies will also be reviewed by the ADDF’s external Business Advisory Board. Award winners will be publicly announced in Fall/Winter 2014.

For program-related inquiries, please contact:
Diana Shineman, PhD, Director, Scientific Affair, ADDF
Phone: 1-212-901-8007 | E-mail: dshineman@alzdiscovery.org

James Pickett, PhD, Head of Research, Alzheimer’s Society
Phone: 020 7423 3607 | Email: james.pickett@alzheimers.org.uk

For application submission inquiries, please contact:
Reena Vanjani, Grants Manager
Phone: 1-212-901-8019 | E-mail: rvanjani@alzdiscovery.org