New treatments: thinking outside the box

Last week I joined almost 600 medical research executives, scientists, policy makers, and funders for the Partnering for Cures meeting in New York.

The first meeting of its kind, it aimed to bridge the gap between charitable and medical research organisations like the Parkinson’s Disease Society, and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Partnering for Cures is the brainchild of FasterCures - an organisation whose goal is to accelerate the pace of discovery and development of new therapies.

The diverse programme explored innovative ways of working which will help us speed up the development of new treatments.

It was interesting to hear Michael Milken the Chairman of FasterCures, and Jeffrey Kindler CEO and Chairman of the Board at Pfizer discuss the challenges facing medical research.

It got me thinking about what we can do. I want to:

• inspire young scientists to choose Parkinson’s research through our career development funding scheme
• encourage groundbreaking research through our innovation grants scheme
• join forces with companies to explore exciting research prospects together
• collaborate with organisations like DeNDRoN to speed up and coordinate effective clinical trials for new treatments

By thinking ‘outside the box’ when it comes to research, we can open more doors to finding a cure for Parkinson’s faster. It’s a message I’ll be passing on to my charitable and research colleagues.

Dr Kieran Breen is Director of Research and Development at the Parkinson's Disease Society