New ALS Prize for Life

Help Mouse with Lou Gehrig's Disease. Win $1 Million. - Newsweek blog - This is on a new $1M ALS treatment prize from Prize4Life, not the existing $1M ALS diagnostics prize:

The first $1 million prize that Prize4Life dangled in front of scientists was for a biomarker of the disease—some measurable protein or other biochemical that scientists can measure and that indicates whether an experimental drug is having an effect on ALS. That should reduce the cost of clinical trials, “de-risking” them somewhat and thereby attracting more biotech or pharma companies to the field. It has attracted about 50 teams, Leitner says, including those pursuing “out of the box” ideas.

The prize announced today is for the discovery of a compound that extends life in mice with two different mouse versions of ALS by 25 percent.

Prize4Life Launches $1 Million Prize for Finding Novel Treatment Candidates for ALS (PDF) - Prize4Life:

In addition to posting the million-dollar prize, Prize4Life has also pledged to spend up to $500,000 additional dollars for independent validation of therapies that meet the bar set by the treatment prize ... The ALS Treatment Prize will have a rolling deadline. If no winning solutions are submitted, the prize will be closed to further submissions in October 2010.

The deadline for the Biomarker prize is November 6, 2008.