The Concept

Money and Competition. We all know their power. We’ve witnessed it on Reality TV. For $50,000, people will jump off a building, swim in a pool with live alligators, allow snakes to be dumped over their head and eat things that are inconceivable to most minds. If $50,000 will motivate people so strongly, imagine what $20 million will do. Add to that the power of competition and you have a win-win situation. The competitive spirit is a strong, basic urge since the beginning of time. We’ve all competed for one thing or another at some time in our life – and, I’m sure you will agree, it brings out the best in all of us (when used for constructive purposes).

Innovative, yes, but we are not the first to employ the "prize" incentive. It has been used in the past and has been the reason why aviation developed so rapidly. Just recently, in October of 2004, the "X" Prize was won when SpaceShipOne met the requirements of the "X" Prize Foundation. To a great extent it was Dr. Peter Diamandis' Ansari "X" Prize that inspired the model for our organization. The thought process was: If it can work to open up aviation and if it can open up the cosmos to space tourism, the same model can be successfully applied in medicine to eradicate disease from the face of this earth and save millions of lives world-wide. To our knowledge, we are the first to employ the competition/award concept in the area of medicine.

Since its discovery by Dr. Alzheimer, no advances have been made in terms of stopping the progression of the disease – much less reversing it. At best, today’s medications may prove helpful in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s to some degree. It’s time we speed things up and focus on a cure.

The goal of the Alzheimer's CURE Foundation, Inc., is to raise a $20 million cash prize that will at the "finish-line" and serve as the "Gold Medal" for the scientist or group of scientists who discover the cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. This money will not be awarded to a pharmaceutical company (or any other research venue) but to the actual scientist(s) who discover the cure for this devastating disease. We define “cure” as any method that will both stop the progression of Alzheimer’s as well as reverse the damage already inflicted by at least 50% in both memory and functionality.