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Parkinson's Advocacy has succeeded in increasing Federal budgets for scientific research from under $50 million per year (prior to the Udall Act which passed late in 1997) to more than 5 times that amount after NIH (National Institutes of Health) completed its 5-year doubling last year. Yet, no new Parkinson's drugs were approved for release in the 6+ years, other than an existing drug combination and a treatment that has been available abroad for several years. DBS has been the only new treatment until very recently. Although many scientists believe we have enough knowledge now to vastly improve treatment, academic scientists, funded by NIH and elsewhere, are not the ones who create, evaluate, manufacture and distribute new therapies. This is the job of private industry regulated by the FDA. WHAT THE SCIENTISTS DIDN'T TELL US is the average time from a scientific treatment discovery to a new product on the market available to patients is 14.2 years (and longer for neurology.) The aim of the Parkinson Pipeline Project is to do what we can as PWP to facilitate the introduction of new therapies. Initially conceived in 2001, The project has grown from our grassroots base on this forum and has gained recognition and resources necessary to make a dent in those long time frames. We have become the grassroots component of the Advancing Parkinson's therapies (APT) program, a consortium of all national level Parkinson's organizations led by PDF (Parkinson's Disease Foundation.) The project has been a harbinger of the major new emphasis by the Director of the NIH called the "roadmap" which focuses on "translational" research from basic science into new therapies, and the "critical path initiative" of the FDA commissioner to facilitate the evaluation and approval of new therapies. We presently have more than 20 volunteers working on compilation of a database of new therapies and diagnostics in the pipeline, which now stands at more than 3 dozen trials in various clinical phases. We have established relationships with a half-dozen and growing number of Pharmaceutical and Bio-Tech firms will PD treatments in the pipeline as well as the FDA (with the goal of advising them on the patient perspective on the disease, the treatments, and the regulatory process.) We are collaborating with Johns-Hopkins Medical School on a grant to be funded by NIH to evaluate the impact of PWP advocates in clinical settings on retention of research subjects in long-term clinical trials. YOU can be a part of this exciting project. In addition to helping speed the cure to the PWP, many of us feel our participation is therapeutic in itself. We are currently in need of additional trackers and educators to help identify and synthesize information in the database on new treatments. We also need additional PWP to serve as advisors on the patient's perspective to the FDA and the sponsors of new therapies undergoing evaluation and, starting soon, we will have counselors for PWP in trials (on-site and telephone). JOIN OUR FIGHT. Sign up as a volunteer today by filling out the forms in the "Help Wanted Section" of the link below: http://www.pdpipeline.org/helpwanted.asp Perry Cohen Ph.D. and The Parkinson Pipeline Project Members ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn