Czaro Strategic Communications

At a recent leadership event in Chicago, JDRF President and CEO, Alan Lewis, PhD, addressed the future of JDRF-funded research.
 
Lewis stated that JDRF's goal is to be patient-centric in research - everything we do should be about how we benefit all people with type 1 diabetes, today and in the future. He believes that a patient-centric focus will ensure that we carefully prioritize what research we fund, what strategic directions we follow, what progress we take to the next stage, and what trials we back.
 
The concepts of "cure, treat, and prevent" will be included in JDRF's goals, with the focus on curing and treating diabetes. JDRF will look for breakthrough treatments, because the 3 million people in the U.S. with type 1 diabetes need to stay healthy until we find those cures. However, cures will always be JDRF's primary focus, but we should think of treatments as the bridge to a cure.

JDRF will soon announce some subtle but meaningful changes in research.
 
There are an established set of cure therapeutic goals that JDRF utilizes to guide its research funding efforts. These research goal areas hold the greatest potential to lead to breakthrough cures and treatments for type 1 diabetes and its complications.
 
The scientific focus of the five cure therapeutics over the past few years will be combined into four therapeutic areas:

• Immune Therapies - previously called Autoimmunity
• Beta Cell Therapies - combines the areas of Replacement and Regeneration
• Glucose Control - formerly called Metabolic Control
• Complication Therapies - takes the place of Complications

It is important to understand that these changes are more than just semantic.
 
JDRF is focusing on research that has an impact on the widest possible range of people with type 1 diabetes. We call that "Patient Benefit." Now, every project doesn't need to impact every person. However, our portfolio of research projects needs to be more balanced in benefiting people at all stages of the disease.
 
Second, JDRF wants to be cognizant of how long research will take to get us to products and treatments. What we are calling "Time to Benefit." We need to continue to expand the research we fund that provides near-term benefits for people, not just cures that might be decades away.
 
These changes are a natural evolution of JDRF's research portfolio and strategy. They are based on progress over 40 years that has positioned the organization well to take advantage of opportunities to drive toward our mission goals - to find a cure!