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Contact: Al Rickard, 703-402-9713 or arickard@associationvision.com

LES President Thomas A. Picone, Ph.D., Reveals His Parkinson’s Disease at LESI Conference

Announcement made in session with co-founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

ALEXANDRIA, VA, May 15, 2008 – When Licensing Executives Society (USA & Canada) President Thomas A. Picone, Ph.D., announced at the recent Licensing Executives Society International Conference in Chicago that he had a personal story about "interdependence" in the licensing profession, it wasn’t clear what was about to come next.

Interdependence among the many sectors of the licensing profession in the global economy has been a dominant theme during his presidency of LES (USA & Canada).

But moments later, he told the surprised audience of more than 700 LES members, "I have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. It is a progressive disease, but as Michael J. Fox (who also has the disease) says, ‘I am a progressive guy so I am not going to let it get me down.’ I plan to reach out to my family and friends and my LES friends for support."

To further illustrate how industry connections and interdependence can happen, he told a story of a chance meeting he had in Israel, where he met a researcher who developed a dopamine drug he is taking to suppress his Parkinson’s symptoms.

"This is one of the fastest drugs to be licensed during the last 10 years," said Picone, who is in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. "For me it was a miracle drug, because it allows me to not have to take a more aggressive drug."

Picone then introduced Deborah W. Brooks, co-founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) for Parkinson’s Research, for a discussion of how the Foundation is using intellectual property licensing to help advance treatment options for Parkinson’s patients.

"In our Foundation’s short history, we’ve quickly learned that to patients’ ultimate detriment, no single party exists to align the efforts of the many disparate stakeholders — primarily academic researchers, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, venture capitalists and advocacy groups — working to develop new therapeutics," Brooks said. "As a patient-centered organization, we have both the opportunity and the burden of working within this system to speed the development of cures for Parkinson’s disease."

The Foundation funds about $30 million a year in Parkinson’s research, taking a "portfolio approach." It is currently funding more than 100 active research projects to try to spark promising treatments or cures. (The Foundation has driven over 400 projects since its inception.)

"We have launched a lot of ships," Brooks said. "Today our ideas are getting bigger, and some of them are turning into $40-million ideas. We target our capital at high-risk areas along the drug development pipeline where nobody else is working."

A major goal of the Foundation is to "de-risk" PD drug development by providing funding that reduces the financial downside for early-stage research projects.

In some cases, Foundation funding also expands existing research projects to make them more robust. For example, the Foundation recently added $2 million to a Phase 2 clinical trial operating with $10 million of venture capital money. This allowed the trial to be extended to nine months, more patients to be enrolled, and more extensive neurological testing to be conducted. Now this promising project is attracting another round of venture capital funding.

"We look at this as an example of how our de-risking strategy is working, and is essential," Brooks said. "Because there are still so many unknowns about Parkinson’s disease — including what causes the disease, and how to objectively diagnose it or measure its progression — the scientific landscape is not yet compelling enough to naturally spark the development of new treatments."

Parkinson’s disease causes dopamine neurons to die. Levodopa, a drug that is converted to dopamine in the brain, is the "gold-standard" treatment for the disease. It has been around for 45 years, and only marginal advancements have occurred since then. A newer treatment, deep brain stimulation, is sometimes used, but it has limited applications and troubling side effects.

"Most Parkinson’s patients will tell you that it is not good enough," Brooks said. Recent discoveries of numerous genes that may play a role in Parkinson’s disease "are showing us we are ripe for potential impact," she added.

The Foundation employs multiple strategies to ensure industry decision-makers are aware of the most promising recent discoveries toward potential neuroprotective therapies, and to connect collaborators who may otherwise never meet or become aware of the natural fit for their work together. One such strategy is the Foundation’s annual Parkinson’s Disease Therapeutics Conference (this year to be held September 15, 2008 in Chicago), where Foundation-funded researchers present results to more than 200 industry representatives.

According to an industry survey commissioned by the Foundation in June 2006, the potential market for a transformative neuroprotective therapy is a head-turning $3 to $7 billion.

While the Foundation does not take an intellectual property position on new drugs and therapies that may result from Foundation-funded research, contracts for the Foundation’s largest awards do typically stipulate that MJFF receive a modest repayment — typically some multiple the amount of the Foundation’s original investment.

"We want to see a therapy that is disease-modifying," she says. "Another high priority is to address untreated symptoms. The science of Parkinson’s is shifting away from dopamine-centric treatment and exploring new areas such as treatments for mood disorders, sleep disturbance, cognitive difficulties, depression, and other symptoms that affect patients."

Picone said that LES is exploring ways to work more closely together with Foundations such as MJFF.

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The Licensing Executives Society (U.S.A. and Canada), Inc. (LES) is a professional society comprised of over 6,000 members engaged in the transfer, use, development, manufacture and marketing of intellectual property. The LES membership includes a wide range of professionals, including business executives, lawyers, licensing consultants, engineers, academicians, scientists and government officials. Many large corporations, professional firms, and universities are represented within the Society’s membership. LES (U.S.A. and Canada), Inc. is a member society of the Licensing Executives Society International, which has a worldwide membership of over 13,000 members. LES serves as an independent, professional organization that facilitates global intellectual property commerce through education, networking, standards development and certification. Learn more at www.usa-canada.les.org.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease within the decade through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today. Learn more at www.michaeljfox.org.