Foundation Guide

A Tour of Our Global Community of Giving

Foundation Guide

A Tour of Our Global Community of Giving

The Michael J Fox Foundation

Mission

The Michael J Fox Foundation is committed to sourcing a cure for Parkinson’s disease through research. The foundation works with urgency to facilitate and fund research in order to increase the rate of breakthroughs. Their main focus is on finding ways to make a difference to patients’ lives today.

The Foundation aims to share the risk of drug development with academics and industry researchers to keep the pipeline of innovations constantly flowing. Researchers can apply to funding through the Edmond J. Safra Core Programs for PD Research. To qualify for funding, researchers must focus of key points along the transitional pathway toward new therapies for PD.

Grants are awarded in the areas of Clinical Intervention, Target Validation, Therapeutics Development and Rapid Response Innovations.

Supported Causes

The Foundation works primarily across the United States, however funding, support and events are directed around the world in order to tackle the challenges faced by Parkison’s patients every day.

  • Altering Disease
  • Defining Parkinson’s Disease
  • Untreated Symptoms
  • Developing New Tools

The Foundation’s investments are divided across four key areas.

  • Altering Disease
    52% of the Foundation’s resources are allocated towards developing treatments that can restore the functions to dopamine neurons that are damaged in the brain of patients.
  • Defining PD
    22% of funding is directed to locating biomarkers that will assist in developing the next generation of treatments.
  • Untreated Symptoms
    18% is invested in researching ways to treat untreated symptoms and minimize side effects. Many of the side effects have a damaging effect on the quality of patient life and are as yet, untreated.
  • Developing New Tools
    To help researchers focus on finding a cure, the foundation attempts to smooth the way in many areas including assembling clinical trial volunteers, crowd sourced research tools and trying to deregulate around barriers in drug development.

Projects

  • The Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) has the goal of finding the missing link in a cure of PD. The $55 million project was launched in 2010 by MJFF, and it has the support of government, industry and academic partners worldwide.
  • The Fox Trial Finder was launched in 2012 by MJFF, to help promote and maintain a readily available pool of volunteers, and essentially build an army of readily available clinical trial patients.
  • In 2011 MJFF funded clinical tests that developed fast and reliable relief from motor fluctuations that are associated with Parkinson’s.
  • Partners in Parkinson’s is a joint venture between AbbVie and The Michael J Fox Foundation. Partners in Parkinson’s is a health initiative that educates people, provides learning resources for the Parkinson’s community and helps patients and caregivers through the stages of the disease.

The Foundation's History

MJFF was founded in 2000 by Michael J Fox. Since then the Foundation has generated over $450 million towards developing a cure for Parkinson’s Disease.

© All rights reserved to Foundation Guide
2016-2023