SOLVE FSHD’s Venture Philanthropy Model
The model will enable SOLVE FSHD to be financially self-sustainable through return on investments.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Following SOLVE FSHD’s recent acclaimed launch, the organization is pleased to formally announce the appointment of Dr. Eva Chin as the Executive Director. SOLVE FSHD’s Founder, Chip Wilson, has personally committed USD100 million to find a cure for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), a rare disease he was diagnosed with at the age of 32. As the inaugural Executive Director for SOLVE FSHD, Dr. Chin will be responsible for aligning the organization’s goals with the expertise of researchers, scientists and companies to promote and fund the discovery and development of new therapies for FSHD.
“Dr. Chin’s experience and specialization in rare neuromuscular diseases add immense value to our organization. We are excited to gain her expertise and guidance to achieve the organization’s goal of finding a cure for FSHD by December 2027,” says Chip Wilson, SOLVE FSHD Founder. He added, “Within just a few weeks of the organization’s launch, SOLVE FSHD has received a tremendous response to the call for qualified grant applications and new therapeutic technologies, which will be reviewed under Dr. Chin’s leadership. In addition, she has worked tirelessly to build strong industry alliances for SOLVE FSHD, closely assessed the exciting projects to fund and facilitated collaborative funding opportunities across the academic and industry sectors in FSHD research and drug development.”
Dr. Chin obtained her Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Waterloo in Canada and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Sydney, Australia and U.T. Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, focusing on intracellular calcium in muscle fatigue and transcriptional regulation of gene expression in muscle fibre type determination and muscle plasticity.
“I am honoured to join the Solve FSHD team, supporting Chip and the Wilson Family in our mission to improve the quality of life for those affected by rare neuromuscular diseases by funding qualified research projects and pre-clinical and clinical research that will accelerate finding a cure for FSHD,” says Dr. Eva Chin, Solve FSHD Executive Director.
Dr. Chin’s career has spanned the academic and pharmaceutical industries, with previous positions at Pfizer, the University of Maryland, MyoTherapeutics, Cytokinetics and NMD Pharma. While at Pfizer, Eva shifted her career from academic research focusing on cellular and molecular mechanisms of muscle function to discovering and developing muscle-targeted therapies. Over the past five years, she has led the nonclinical development of numerous drug candidates in clinical trials for ALS, SMA, myasthenia gravis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Under Dr. Chin’s guidance, Solve FSHD’s venture-philanthropic funding model will strategically utilize Wilson’s monetary commitment to support the initial grants, investments in early-stage companies focused on FSHD and to incentivize pharmaceutical companies in the neuromuscular disease space to increase their focus on FSHD. The venture philanthropy model will enable the organization to be financially self-sustainable through return on investments. The investments in viable, albeit high-risk, research opportunities may generate a continued re-investment stream into the organization to further support grant funding initiatives.
“To take advantage of recent advances in genetic therapeutics, SOLVE FSHD constructed a creative funding platform to facilitate the development of treatments that rapidly slow, stop or even reverse weakness in FSHD,” said Dr. John Day, MD, Ph.D., Director of Stanford University’s Neuromuscular Medicine program. “Having someone with Dr. Eva Chin’s experience and capabilities join SOLVE FSHD is critical to establishing the scientifically rigorous program needed to define and validate safe and effective treatments as quickly as possible,” says Dr. John Day, MD, Ph.D., Neuromuscular Medicine, Stanford Neuroscience Health Center.
About Solve FSHD
Solve FSHD is funding innovative biotech and biopharma research and development activities that accelerate novel treatments of Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) treatment. It is fully funded and created by Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Chip Wilson. The founder of yoga-inspired athletic apparel company Lululemon Athletica inc. has been living with FSHD for the last three decades of his life. He has committed $100 million of his own money to create SOLVE FSHD and kick-start funding into projects that fit the organization’s mission: accelerate research into new therapies and find a cure for the disorder by 2027.
Future announcements for grant funding will be issued on SOLVE FSHD’s website – https://solvefshd.com/. For early-stage companies, contact SOLVE FSHD at [email protected].
If you have FSHD and want to find out about clinical trials or be included in the FSHD registry, please see SOLVE FSHD’s website – https://solvefshd.com/
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