The Burrill Report (October 14, 2013): Why Drug Development Is No Longer Just for Pharma (.MP3,15.22 Mb)

Drug development can be expensive, but patients, their families, and researchers looking for treatments where options may be lacking are developing networks, raising money, and conducting research. Nick Sireau, chairman of the Alkaptonuria Society, discussed his own efforts to find a treatment for alkaptonuria, a rare degenerative disease that afflicts his two sons. The AKU Society is in the final days of a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to help pay for a late-stage clinical trial of an existing drug that’s a possible treatment for the disease. We spoke to Sireau about the disease, how the internet is changing drug development, and what drugmakers can learn from organizations like his.

Click here for infofmation on the Indigogo campaign.