$10M in prizes offered toward work on FSHD treatments
Awards are being offered as part of the XPRIZE Healthspan Competition
The venture philanthropy organization SOLVE FSHD is offering $10 million in prizes for innovators who are working to develop new treatments for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD).
“This competition will bring together the brightest minds in medicine, technology, and science, all working toward a cure for this devastating disease,” Eva Chin, executive director of SOLVE FSHD, said in a press release from the organization.
The prizes are being offered as part of the XPRIZE Healthspan competition, which is designed to address quality of life issues as global life expectancy increases.
“We are excited to partner with XPRIZE in this ambitious effort to accelerate scientific breakthroughs for FSHD,” Chin said.
FSHD is the third most common type of muscular dystrophy. It’s caused by mutations that result in abnormal activity at part of the genome called the D4Z4 region. The disease-causing mutation is most commonly inherited from a parent who has the disease, but it can develop spontaneously in some cases.
Finding a treatment for FSHD
Like other forms of muscular dystrophy, FSHD is marked by muscle weakness that worsens over time. FSHD usually most severely affects the muscles around the face, shoulder blades, and upper arms, but it also can affect other muscles, and 1 in 5 people with the disease will be unable to walk by the time they are age 50. The symptoms of FSHD usually appear during adolescence or young adulthood, but some patients start having muscle weakness in early childhood, which is associated with a more severe disease course.
Nearly 1 million people around the world are living with FSHD, but treatment options for this form of muscular dystrophy are limited. No therapy has ever been proven to slow the progression of the disease.
As part of the new initiative, eight interim prizes of $250,000 will be awarded to teams that achieve key milestones in developing new FSHD treatments by June. A grand prize of $8 million will be awarded to a team that is able to demonstrate success in a clinical trial of a treatment for FSHD, which would be a key step toward curing the disease, according to SOLVE FSHD.
Teams interested in entering the competition must register online by Dec. 20.
About the Author
