At the end of last year (so, basically, two weeks ago), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation announced a joint partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology to help with the discovery and development of drugs to promote beta cell survival. The program will look to fund research at academic centers around the world that could eventually lead to novel new drugs for the prevention and treatment of type 1 diabetes.
Sounds great, but just a moment… isn’t JDRF is trying to cure a disease that JNJ profits handsomely from through their many products, including the popular One touch brand of glucose meters? Why yes! This was my first reaction, too, so I looked into it a bit.
According to both sides, there was no concern whatsoever about conflict of interest.
“They are a leader in the diabetes community and we’re a leader in healthcare, looking to even further establish ourselves in that arena. We have common interest in helping people with diabetes,” says Ernie Knewitz, a PR representative from Johnson and Johnson.
A statement issued from members of JDRF’s research team, Dr. Patricia Kilian and Dr. Julia Greenstein, says, “The discussions were initiated by a top level meeting between JNJ Corporate Development and Metabolic units and JDRF Senior Leadership on how to further diabetes research and products to benefit patients.”
When asked for comments off the cuff, Drs. Kilian and Greenstein responded that there were “no concerns expressed” about possible clashes: “JNJ’ s mission is aligned with JDRF’s mission to help patients live better lives. JNJ is a key player in the diabetes market place with pumps and glucose testing, and the company is the world’s largest healthcare company with the mission to put the patient first. Thus, there is a meshing of cultures and interests between JDRF and JNJ.”
A meshing of cultures? Hmm, I’d like to know how that statement strikes long-time members of JDRF.
In any case, the joint program will solicit grant proposals from academia and medical research foundations for one- or two-year research projects, on research that will focus on promoting the survival and function of beta cells. The grants will be equally funded by the JDRF and JNJ and will be evaluated by a joint committee, with oversight from a Scientific Advisory Board and JDRF volunteers.
JNJ’s Knewitz says, “What will come from that could be new drug targets, and then we would partner with the discoverer to develop [the treatments].”
So it seems that Big Pharma may have discovered for itself that a diabetes cure could be profitable. Which of course is exactly what a company putting the patient first is supposed to care about, right?
Needless to say, diabetes research can always use all the help it can get, and it will be interesting to see what kind of new developments emerge from this alliance.
Editor’s Note: Read here about all of JDRF’s industry partnerships. What’s different with JNJ is that they are already making money off diabetes supplies, as opposed to a biotech firm conducting cure research.
The T1 market is relatively small compared to the T2 market, so curing T1 would probably provide enough publicity to more than make up for it. Plus, I imagine, the research may also provide new T2 targets. And how about new treatments for a whole array of auto-immune diseases? I wonder who will own the rights to any discoveries made?
Forgive me for asking, but I don’t really see how this particular partnership differs from similar deals JDRF has announced with Tolerx/GlaxoSmithKline, Bayhill/Genentech-Roche or Macrogenics/Eli Lilly and Company? All are partnerships aimed at commercializing immune-tolerance treatments aimed at working towards curative treatments for type 1 diabetes. These, combined with islet regeneration treatments from the likes of Transition Therapeutics, Exsulin/INGAP or even transplantation of new islets (including ones cultured from stem cells) may change the way type 1 diabetes is treated in the not-too-distant future. For J&J, they may have a cash cow in their Lifescan business, but that could evaporate and the company left on the sidelines. Instead, this partnership may help give J&J a place in curative therapies, which are likely to carry big price tags — at least intially.
Sounds interesting. With all of this I hope the goal isn’t to find a drug that we have to take for the rest of our lives. I would like to be cured. I know it’s a lot to ask.
If in the process there is a treatment that essentially cures t1, I would be extremely grateful of course, even if I had to do repeat treatments. But don’t have a goal of trading one cash flow for another. I am not implying that this is the case with J&J but this whole discussion makes me wonder a bit. I know that the majority of research scientists have good intentions, but also that financial concerns can make even the best people falter. I hope JDRF does not get swayed away from #1 goal of curing t1 diabetes.
“JNJ’ s mission is aligned with JDRF’s mission to help patients live better lives.”
I thought JDRF’s mission was to help patients no longer become patients anymore?
Remember, everything a business does is done for the purpose of increasing their profit. Period.
Interesting. More academic in argument than practical, though. Most companies and organizations, like Lilly, J&J, and JDRF – are pushing to put themselves out of business – for ones like JDRF, completely. Others would just move on to other avenues for revenue if the diabetes money-stream came to a close or started dripping less cash. It’s the same as why Lilly funds all kinds of research for a cure to stop diabetes. They might no longer have insulin or related D-drugs to hang their hats on as much, but they’d still be able to pursue other areas (and whether that would be successful is a whole nother topic…)
I’m glad you brought up this conflict of interest issue. I do think it runs much deeper than this single partnership project, it is the entire org of JDRF. Robert Wood Johnson IV is the Chairman of JDRF, also the heir of the Johnson & Johnson corp. There are major conflicts of interest embedded in the org, the leadership, and their funding sources. It is a complicated debate, but one that I think is important to discuss more often in the DOC; that of who we support and where money comes from, and how helpful that support will ultimately be.
There is irony in the fact that this article ran yesterday. Casey Johnson, daughter of Robert Wood Johnson and heir to the J and J fortune, was found dead yesterday at the age of 30. She had Type 1 diabetes. Cause of death is pending toxicology reports.
As a scientist with Type 1 diabetes, I was surprised that JandJ doesn’t have a much bigger involvement in finding a cure for Type 1 when I first read about Casey Johnson yesterday. I figured that they probably do fund a lot of Type 1 research, or at least the Johnson family probably does, but they might not seek publicity for it. A partnership between JandJ in JDRF makes a lot of sense. Industry funding of scientific research is often and rightfully considered suspect due to conflict of interest, but the fact of the matter is that the JDRF research budget and the NIH research budget (… and all the other sources of funding scientists like me depend on put together) are peanuts compared to the level of funding that a company like JandJ can provide. JandJ is absolutely not going to go out of business if Type1 diabetes is cured. And I agree whole-heartedly that most, if not all, Big Pharma corporations are working toward cures for the very same diseases that they make their money on. Drug and device pipelines are long and well-designed to keep companies going. There will never be a shortage of diseases to treat, unfortunately.
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