Lauder Family Donates $200 Million to Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation for Development of Novel Methods to Prevent, Diagnose, Treat, and Cure Alzheimer’s Disease

Investment comes at critical time for Alzheimer’s field as biomarkers and clinical trials aimed at novel targets bring a new era of research

The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) today announced that Leonard A. Lauder and Ronald S. Lauder, along with the entire third generation of their family, William Lauder, Gary Lauder, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, and Jane Lauder, have committed $200 million to accelerate the discovery and development of drugs to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease. This is the largest gift ever given to the ADDF – underscoring the Lauder family’s dedication to curing Alzheimer’s.

"With this extraordinary gift, the Lauders will continue what they began 25 years ago, when they founded the ADDF in honor of their mother, Mrs. Estée Lauder," said Mark Roithmayr, Chief Executive Officer of the ADDF.

The members of the Lauder family have been at the forefront of philanthropic support for Alzheimer’s research and have become the nation’s leaders in private giving to combat the disease.

"Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t affect just one person, it impacts entire families," said Leonard A. Lauder, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of the ADDF. "That is why this family gift sets the stage for the next generation to tackle and ultimately end this devastating disease. We are seeing important progress, and we feel confident that this gift will build on the current momentum to cure Alzheimer’s disease."

The gift comes at a critical time for the over six million Americans and their families currently living with Alzheimer’s as new breakthroughs emerge with the approval of several anti-amyloid therapies. These advances were made possible through new diagnostic tools, such as the Amyvid PET scan, that have revolutionized Alzheimer’s research, making clinical trials more accurate and efficient. The ADDF provided early funding for the scan, which played a critical role in getting these drugs across the finish line by tracking their ability to clear amyloid.

"When my brother and I began this project 25 years ago, there was little hope on the horizon for Alzheimer’s disease," said Ronald S. Lauder, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of the ADDF. "We are proud of the undeniable impact the ADDF has made over the past two decades and we are more confident than ever for the future. As this research continues to progress, we will have prevention programs to slow this disease before it begins, diagnostic tools to tell us what each person’s disease looks like, and effective treatments to eradicate it for future generations."

The next step for the ADDF is to help bring to market a new generation of drugs that are based on an understanding of the biology of aging that can be used in combination with anti-amyloid therapies to stop Alzheimer’s in its tracks. This work is already well under way, with 75% of the clinical trials in today’s robust and diverse drug pipeline aimed at novel targets. The Lauder family gift will fuel the ADDF to advance this next generation of drugs more quickly by allowing the organization to explore the full potential of the current pipeline and move the most promising research forward.

Novel biomarkers will be key to developing personalized approaches that tailor drug combinations to each patient’s unique disease pathology, improving clinical trial designs and allowing researchers to identify which patients will benefit most from which drugs.

"This is an incredibly exciting time for the field, and we would not be here without the vision and outstanding commitment and leadership of the Lauder family," said Dr. Howard Fillit, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of the ADDF. "Many of the most promising treatments being studied right now are based on our understanding of the biology of aging, an approach long supported by the ADDF, which focuses on the many processes that go wrong in the aging brain to cause Alzheimer’s. We believe we will conquer this disease using precision medicine approaches that have been successful in preventing and treating other diseases of chronic aging, such as cancer. The biomarkers being developed by the ADDF’s Diagnostics Accelerator will play a key role, allowing us to pinpoint the best drugs to target the specific causes of each patient’s Alzheimer’s."

Established in honor of Mrs. Estée Lauder in 1998, the ADDF was founded on a venture philanthropy model, positioning it to address a critical gap in Alzheimer’s research through funding innovative and promising science while investing all returns directly back into the pipeline. The ADDF’s model has garnered the attention and support of many of the world’s leading philanthropists, including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and MacKenzie Scott, as well as industry leaders Biogen and Eli Lilly and Company. With this new gift from the Lauder family, the ADDF expects to inspire further collaboration among leaders in philanthropy, industry, academia, and government.

"This extraordinary gift from the Lauder family will change the way the world ages," said Mark Roithmayr. "This disease cannot be solved in a vacuum, and the Lauder family understands no one goes through Alzheimer’s alone. This gift enables the ADDF to continue convening the world’s best and brightest minds to solve this disease while reinvesting every penny back into the science and innovating the drug pipeline."