Investing in ground-breaking research and clinical trials to help find a cure for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is an Australian Government priority.
At the 2020 Cure4MND Foundation's Big Freeze fundraising event, the Government announced a $2 million commitment to expand research opportunities to help find a cure for this devastating disease.
This commitment builds on the $7 million previously announced at the 2018 and 2019 Big Freeze events.
This funding has been used to support the Motor Neurone Disease Translation Research Pipeline, which aims improve understanding of MND in order to identify and develop new therapies and ensure they are implemented in clinical practice.
The cause of MND is not yet understood and there is no known cure. In Australia, two people are diagnosed with MND, and two people die because of MND, every day.
Through the Government's Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), we have also invested in new clinical trial activity and provided greater access to innovative and cutting-edge ways to treat MND in our considerable efforts to discover a breakthrough.
The Government is funding two major clinical trial projects:
- The MRFF-Adults with MND program, which aims to improve access to clinical trials and therapy outcomes for people living with MND by testing the effectiveness of repurposed drugs as potential treatment options.
- The National Precision Medicine Program for MND Project, which aims to establish an Australian first Precision Medicine Program for MND. Precision medicine is the new frontier in personalised therapy using treatments targeted to the unique genetic and molecular makeup of patients with the promise of better clinical results.
In addition, the National Health and Medical Research Council has committed nearly $38 million between 2016 and 2019 to also support research related to MND.
