Any suggestions on how to set up a fund for DRACO, a universal antiviral that could wipe out ME/CFS?

[Hip]

In this thread there is a discussion about funding a universal antiviral drug called DRACO, which has in early tests proved effective against a wide range of viruses, and should be able to wipe out the viruses that are linked to ME/CFS, (enterovirus, HHV-6, Epstein-Barr virus), thereby quite possibly curing ME/CFS, or at least significantly ameliorating it.

However, in spite of the initial funding for studies which showed DRACO works in mice (this funding was in part from military sources for counter bioterrorism purposes), further funding for DRACO has not been forthcoming, in spite of its huge and universal potential.

An existing crowd-funding campaign for DRACO has been set up here; however, it would be a very good idea if the ME/CFS community began their own crowd-funding campaign for DRACO.

Here are the sort of funds that are required to move DRACO forward:

$10,000 would help us order supplies to begin new work on DRACO.
$100,000 would help us produce new batches of DRACO for new trials against viruses.

$500,000 would help us carry out the first tests of DRACO in cells against retroviruses.
$1,000,000 would help us optimize DRACO’s performance against retroviruses in cells.
$1,500,000 would help us test and optimize DRACO in cells against multiple retrovirus strains.

Does anyone here have knowledge, experience or suggestions about how to kick-start a crowd-funding campaign for DRACO from the ME/CFS community? If so, please post your suggestions.



EDIT OCT 2015: The old DRACO research crowdfunding campaign detailed above was closed down, but the new crowdfunding campaign is HERE.




Todd Rider's 2011 paper on DRACO here: Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Therapeutics.

DRACO works by targeting dsRNA, which is only produced inside cells that have been infected by viruses.

DRACO is a molecule which combines a dsRNA-binding protein, attached to another protein that induces cells to undergo apoptosis. So two proteins joined together, each with their own function.

DRACO is drawn into virally-infected cells, and then kills them by triggering apoptosis. It works for the majority of viruses, since nearly all viruses generate dsRNA inside the cells they infect.

 

[RYO]

Thanks HIP for starting this thread.

The following comments are from previous post :

I think it would be in the best interest of CFS / ME community to use our own or develop our own funding organization instead of contributing directly to DRACO fund individually. It would be nice if we could collaborate with other research groups such as those at Stanford, Chronic fatigue initiative (Hutchins Family Foundation) and other organizations in UK and AU.

 

[ScottT]

Hello,

I wanted to give you all an update on The Draco Fund. I started the push to create it a few years back and after overcoming a few hurdles I'm happy to say that it is up and running. We received our 501.3c status and are currently accepting donations.

www.thedracofund.org

Thank you all for your interest and I wish you all the best

 

[Hip]

Hello,

I wanted to give you all an update on The Draco Fund. I started the push to create it a few years back and after overcoming a few hurdles I'm happy to say that it is up and running. We received our 501.3c status and are currently accepting donations.

www.thedracofund.org

Thank you all for your interest and I wish you all the best

Hi ScottT

Thanks for the update.

Do you know if Dr Todd Rider is himself pursuing further research grants for his work, or has that proved unfruitful?

Also, do know why the funding for Dr Rider's research dried up in the first place? I understand his work was originally funded with the help of some military organizations, for counter-bioterrorism purposes. Presumably the bioterrorism threat must have been downgraded.

If they had successfully completed the research and brought DRACO antiviral to market, they likely would have recouped its costs — and saved thousands of lives — in the current Ebola virus crisis.

Not to mention the inevitable arrival of an Asian bird flu global pandemic at some point in the future, that will likely kill many millions.

You'd think the few 100 thousand necessary to take DRACO forward would be forthcoming from government, given this outlook.

 

[ScottT]

Hi Hip,

Dr. Rider's work is being funded for veterinary applications. Also, he is still receiving a grant from the NIH, however, DRACO research has progressed passed the scope of the NIH's mandate. As I understand it, the government only funds basic research. I have seen a recent push to help in translation and I did call a few months back to inquire about the program but I was told it did not match.

On the bioterrorism threat, I have no information. It may be that the areas seen as the highest threat already have therapeutics that are farther down the line in terms of testing. Case in point would be the Ebola vaccine that I read may be ready for front line medical professionals by the end of the year.

As to the rest of what you wrote... You are describing what drives me. I am self-taught in the biosciences where I've read thousands of pages of texts and research (just to give you the level to which I've studied, I have a paper under peer review). I was handed Dr. Rider's paper in 2011 and I've been doing everything could think of, in what free time I had at night, to get DRACO research funded. In my opinion, DRACO may very well end up being historic in its ability to save life, and I will not stand by and watch it go unfunded. Earlier this year, I made it my full time job. I have been doing this all pro bono thus far and the expenses, such as filing for 501.3c, have been covered by myself and two dedicated people who have been giving me what help they can.

Now that The Draco Fund is up and running, people have come in with money and services to help. I would ask everyone who cares, to please come to our site and donate what you can... then spread the word.

Thank you,
Scott
www.thedracofund.org

 

[Starfive]

Hi Scott, I am trying to open the links to the dracofund and the browser just hangs. Could you check and see if anything is wrong. Really interested in learning more. Thanks for your dedication!

 

[Hip]

Hi Scott, I am trying to open the links to the dracofund and the browser just hangs. Could you check and see if anything is wrong. Really interested in learning more. Thanks for your dedication!

I have no problem viewing the www.thedracofund.org site on Safari, Firefox and Chrome on both Mac and PC.

 

[ScottT]

Hi Starfive,

I am sorry you are having problems.. I did confirm that our servers have not reported any problems. Can you tell me what browser and operating system you are using. You are the first to report the problem and we want to make sure no one has any problems accessing our site.

Thank you!

 

[halcyon]

The link in Hip's original post appears to be not working (dracofund.org instead of thedracofund.org) so if you clicked on that it won't work.

 

[ScottT]

Thank you Halcyon... Does the link in my post work?

 

[halcyon]

Yes, your link works fine for me.

 

[Hip]

The link in Hip's original post appears to be not working (dracofund.org instead of thedracofund.org) so if you clicked on that it won't work.

Well spotted. OK, I have just updated the link in my original post to the new www.thedracofund.org web address that does work.

 

[Starfive]

Thanks for the update. The link above in Hip's post works just fine!

 

[RYO]

Thanks for the good news. Now to work on funding...

 

[RYO]

Sent my donation to www.thedrancofund.org!!

 

[Hip]

The DRACO fund has been closed down, apparently as a result of the actions of Draper Laboratory.

The "Killing Sickness" DRACO Fund Facebook page says:

9 March at 16:35

We are very sad to learn that Draper Laboratory has decided not to go forward with The Draco Fund as a fund raising vehicle. We are not entirely sure how this decision came about and it is truly disappointing for us that we will not be able to help advance DRACO towards human use.

We would like to thank everyone who helped us spread the word about DRACO and our efforts to get the research funded for human applications. Thank you to all those who donated, Your donations drove increased Draco awareness in keeping with our stated mission. However, no further donations will be accepted.

We do not know why Draper decided not to move forward with us, but we hope it is because they came upon an even better way to explore DRACO’s true potential. Any questions you may have should be directed to the Draper Laboratory (communications@draper.com).

Thank you all again.
Sincerely,
The Draco Fund


Source: here.

 

[searcher]

@Hip - I thought you may find https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-end-viral-diseases-with-dracos#/ interesting.

 

[Hip]

@Hip - I thought you may find https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-end-viral-diseases-with-dracos#/ interesting.

Thanks for posting that @searcher.

Looks like their funding campaign for DRACO has got off to a good start.

Interesting that as well as DRACO inventor Todd Rider, Aubrey de Grey (an anti-aging researcher) is also involved.

 

[Biarritz13]

Does anyone here have knowledge, experience or suggestions about how to kick-start a crowd-funding campaign for DRACO from the ME/CFS community? If so, please post your suggestions.

As you know there is already a Vaccine of Berna Biotech which is working on 50% to 60%.

The ME/CFS community should crowdfund this Vaccine because everything is already set up mostly, the Dracos Vaccine seems great but it would take near to 8 years to be operational as they haven't tried human trials for EBV for example (According to someone from the team).

 

[Hip]

As you know there is already a Vaccine of Berna Biotech which is working on 50% to 60%.

The Staphypan® Staphylococcus toxoid vaccine made by Berna Biotech, which brought significant symptomatic improvements to the majority of ME/CFS patients, unfortunately had to be withdrawn, because of regulations regarding the mercury content of vaccines.

It would have apparently cost Berna Biotech $0.9 million to reformulate their existing Staphylococcus toxoid vaccine as a new mercury-free product, and Berna Biotech found that this would not be economically viable, so they withdrew the vaccine. See this post by @Ninan for more details. See also this post for my suggestion on what might be done to address this issue.

(The fact that you get more mercury from eating a tuna fish sandwich than you do with a vaccine seems to make these regulations rather over-zealous, but that's the way it goes.)